Moving To New York: As Told By An Overthinking, Type-A Princess: Part 1

Well everybody, I’ve done it. I’ve officially moved to New York. It took blood, sweat, and some tears…okay, a lot of tears…to do it, but it happened. I’m here and I’m eager to begin this new chapter in one of my favorite cities. I know many of you, mostly my lovely family, are eager to hear about what’s been going on for the past three weeks since I left Texas. Well, here goes nothing! For the next few days, I will be uploading blog posts about my big move and my thoughts on New York life thus far. So ready your popcorn, pop some bubbly, or whatever, and get ready for Moving To New York: As Told By An Overthinking, Type-A Princess.

All those years spent dreaming about moving to New York, living the city life and having so much culture and art at my fingertips, I never once thought about the logistics. What exactly does a cross-country move to New York look like? How do I get all of my stuff there? How does one get furniture up to their apartment if they live in a walk-up and don’t have any friends yet? Will I be able to get things delivered? What if I don’t have laundry in my apartment building?

Did I mention I flew to New York not even having a place to live?! Crazy, right. Especially for someone like me.

So here’s my version of what it was like to move to New York City. It may not be this way for everyone, and perhaps I could have done things differently, but this is the saga of a type-A, anxiety-ridden, overreacting, overemotional Princess…named Alex J

The night before my one-way trip to NYC, I was frantically packing. Definitely not my best move. Instead of relaxing and enjoying one final night with my family, I was cramming way too much stuff into two suitcases and a duffle, while lamenting about how I just didn’t understand why my personal belongings seemed to keep growing, rather than shrinking, in size. I managed to get all of my clothing (except the winter essentials), shoes, undergarments, accessories, toiletries, and other various must-haves into the bags that would be flying with me the next day.

That same night, as I was cleaning out some purses, the fact that I was moving states away and that my life was changing hit me like a brick wall and, while I’m not proud to say it, I spent most of that evening crying. Because once I manage to let one teardrop escape, the floodgates opened for business.

In my defense, I hadn’t had a proper cry since I graduated college back in May. And for a person who emotes as much as me, that’s a really long time to keep those feelings bottled up! I’ve never been a nostalgic person and I’ve never been sad about one chapter of my life closing and another one beginning. To me, these are exciting life events. The difference in graduating college and graduating high school is that, after high school, you know college is the likely next step. However, after college…the possibilities are endless. The world is at your fingertips and you get to make your life whatever you want it to be. And if I sit and think about that too hard…I get really freaked out!

I’m a planner, I like to have a rough agenda. I like to foresee where my life could potentially be. Of course I have goals and aspirations, but I can’t picture another upcoming milestone the way you can picture walking across a stage holding a diploma. The secretary of my life called and said she shredded all of my agendas and my schedule for the next who knows how many years is WIDE OPEN. Scary stuff. But also ridiculously exciting. Because now I get to make it whatever I want it to be.

So back to packing and crying. And when I say crying, I mean the ugly, heavy kind. I was crying about the fact that I was done with college, done attending the greatest university in the whole world, Texas A&M, done living in College Station, and done living in Texas. Tears were falling because I would no longer be seeing my best friends every single day and wouldn’t be able to just hop in the car and drive to see my family when I wanted. I was also crying out of fear…fear of the unknown and the enormous life-change that was heading my way. Fear I’d made the wrong choice.

But I don’t really believe in wrong choices. I’ve always wanted to live in New York and I had the perfect opportunity to make that happen. If it doesn’t end up being everything I thought it’d be or if I just don’t see myself being here anymore, then that’s okay. At least I tried. I would never regret taking the chance to live in New York City, but I would definitely regret NOT taking it. When you’ve wanted to do something your whole life, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.

Once I finished packing and calmed down, I was able to sleep, somewhat soundly, before waking up and preparing for the long journey ahead. With two overweight suitcases, a large Vera Bradley duffle, and a tote bag, we headed to the airport with my parents driving as I sat quietly in the backseat of the car. Just like I was a little kid again. All of the “See You Soon’s” had been said, and one final goodbye to my trusty first car, Ella the Elantra. (At the time this post was written, Ella had found a new home. I don’t want to talk about it L)

Once arriving at the airport, I checked in for my Southwest flight and made my way to the security lines, where I had a tearful goodbye with my parents. I do NOT like crying in front of people. I put on my sunglasses as fast as I could but the tears were streaming down. I was quite angry with myself for being so emotional, but oh well. It happened. I’m sure people in the airport were thinking, this girl clearly has some issues because she’s sobbing all over the place. Thankfully, I was at Hobby, not IAH…less people, you know.

Once I was through security, I sat down at the gate, pulled myself together, and bought the Texas Monthly with JJ Watt on the cover. Because it made me happy to have a “Texas” magazine with me…not because JJ was on the cover…obviously. We boarded the plane and three and a half hours later I landed in my new home.

Getting two large suitcases, a duffle, and a tote out of an airport, all by yourself, while also trying to locate your Uber car as taxis and other vehicles are zooming by…is ridiculously difficult. Remember that anxiety I mentioned earlier, this is one of the things I was stressing over. My parents suggested getting one of those luggage carts, which ended up being the best $6 I’ve ever spent. Some nice people at baggage claim helped me get the trolley all situated before I headed out. Thank you, nice people! Once I made it to the car, I headed to my very generous family friend’s home, where I would be staying while I searched for an apartment.

The apartment search, which I naively and optimistically, thought would only last a couple of days, ended up being a weeklong extravaganza I had NO IDEA I was in for…

Tune in for Part 2 of Moving to New York: As Told By An Overthinking, Type-A Princess tomorrow!