What Do You Know Right Away About a New Yorker

When I’m meeting someone who says that they lived in NY for a few years, I know a few things right away:

1.       That they went through a lot. It’s difficult to even explain this sentence. When you live in NYC, you encounter the whole variety of different situations and emotions. There are too many of them to even start discussing them here.

2.       That they lived in different places and neighborhoods and they know a lot of good stories about renting apartments and shitty rooms.

3.       That it’s difficult to surprise them. They simply have seen too much weirdness. Every. Single. Day.

4.       That they start laughing when they hear someone from another city saying: “My commute to work is just too long”. Oh, we would give everything to have our office only 20 minutes away.

5.       They know how to find food for $5. Yes, you can still find food at this price in NY. 

6.       That they went out on a few dates that turned out to be disasters. 

7.       That their thoughts run 3 times faster than those of people from other cities or countries.  

8.       That they are used to the fact that they get what they want. Sorry, this is how they treat us here – we demand it and we get it because the competition is just too big and we learned that we can act like spoiled brats. And most of the times we do.

9.       That they can be super patient, because of point No. 1. Too many things have happened to them, so they just take a deep breath, knowing that it could have been worse. 

10.   That they may be super inpatient – because of point 1. There were just too many situations that they dealt with already. It’s fucking too much. How much can a person handle, anyway?

11.   That they would want to help you because it makes them feel better about themselves. But what makes them feel even better is when you don’t bother them at all.