An Empire State of Mind

New York City - the source of inspiration for music (An Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z + Alicia Keys), movies and television shows (Sex in the City), and pure unabashed ambition (Donald Trump, Wall Street). Since I grew up in Massachusetts, it still amazes me that it took exactly 22 years before I drove just 228 miles to the city that never sleeps. It was love at first sight and also the first (and only) item to ever make it on my bucket list: I need to live in NYC.

So here I am: a brand new New Yorker, just 3 tiny weeks old. My roommate, a fellow USC alum and recent ECLP alum, and I still have boxes to unpack and the apartment still smells like a fresh coat of every landlord’s white paint. My biggest adjustment so far is the 3 hours I spend commuting each day to and from my 4th rotation with GE Money in Stamford, CT.

Commuting is both a blessing and a curse. When my alarm goes off at 6:05 each morning, I don’t have a problem leaving my bed for the cold air and a moonlit apartment. Knowing that I can fall back to sleep as soon as I get on the Metro-North train makes battling the sleepies a whole lot easier - I still have an hour or so to win the war.

On the other hand, time management has become key. While the commute as a whole is basically stress free, I try to explain it like this: Imagine you spend 3 hours everyday stuck in one chair and you can’t move. How would you get things done? But learning simple tricks makes life a whole lot easier, like the cars in the back of the train are less crowded and therefore allows one to work on their laptop during the ride.

Some may think this choice is ridiculous, but I think it’s adventurous. As Alicia Keys belts out in the infamous song: “In New York, concrete jungles are where dreams are made of….”

Posted by Heidi