Becoming-a-New-Yorker Theory

I have a new friend named Sera, who shared with me tonight her theory on people who move to New York. Sera is a transplant from Vermont, whose love affair with New York City is four years strong. She works as an assistant for a small, but revolutionary company that has been working with our digital division for months. Phone and AOL instant messenger communication between us has been so extensive that we finally decided that we should actually meet.

Even if technology-assisted interaction has led you to believe that you might click with someone in person, there's still always that apprehension when you actually decide to meet. Fortunately Sera was almost exactly what I expected from what I knew via her phone and IM personality. I liked her immediately on all fronts. She is so cool that we hung out longer than I expected and was late getting home to catch Terrence's first IBL game on Internet radio (7pm PST/10pm EST).

Side thought: That is one thing that I don't like about living in New York City without a car; I'm always at the mercy of the MTA, and weekend track and tunnel construction has the trains running crazy. Yet if I had a car, parking is frustrating and expensive.

We left The Black Door after several happy-hour drinks to go to another bar for food and one more drink. As we were walking along West 26th Street, we were talking about how it's weird being at that age where our friends are starting to get married and have children. And being from Western North Carolina and Vermont, many of our friends were married and having their first children right after high school. As we turned onto Broadway, she shared her becoming-a-New-Yorker theory.

"I have a theory about people who move to New York," she said. "People our age, who move to New York, aren't looking to settle down right away and be relationship- or marriage-focused. Most of us who chose New York are career-oriented and want to ... live. People our age, who are already looking for marriage, move to places like ... Ohio ... or live in the towns where they went to high school or college, met someone, got married ... and become baby factories."

I thought to myself, I moved to New York City because I wanted to walk down the street with friends or coworkers on a Friday night after a long week of work and see things like that (Madison Square Park was to my right) - and to know that it wasn't going anywhere soon and neither was I. So in many ways, her theory is right ... at least when applied to my life and why I'm becoming a New Yorker.