Carrie Bradshaw Lied to Me!

    April 10, 2018 the day I packed up my car and moved from Maryland to New York City. I was nervous of course, but I was so excited about my new journey. I was going to be a young fashionista in the big city, I was going to be Carrie Bradshaw! If you are not familiar with Carrie or Sex and the City, here's a little rundown. The show follows the lives of four friends: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. Carrie Bradshaw the main character is a single woman in her 30’s who writes a newspaper column about dating in New York City. Her and her friends all have different views when it comes to sex, dating and living in NYC but all of them share about the same social calendar and income level. Two big factors when it comes to living in New York City.

    Let’s start with social life. Carrie and her friends were always on the most exclusive guest list all because of an awesome connection one of them had. In this city it’s about who you know. There is an estimated 8,336,817 people in New York City and it helps to know about half of them. I know a solid 5, so I got some work to do. Moving to NYC helped me realize that I am not the social butterfly I thought I was. When I lived in the DMV, my weekends were jampacked with brunches, dinner parties and clubbing. I had some good connects too. When I moved here all that changed, I went from having a large circle of friends that I had known for years to having just one. I had to start from scratch. My friend’s friends became my friends, but I can’t ride coattails forever! I have challenged myself to open up and talk to more people because you have to get out of your shell if you really want to do New York City right.

    Going out for drinks and splurging on big ticket purchases was something the women of Sex and the City did often. As someone who now lives in NYC this way of life is laughable unless you’re wealthy. Here’s a short synopsis of a day out here. It’s nice outside. We don’t get many nice days, so you have to take advantage of them when they come. You and your friend decide to hang out. Neither of you want to spend a lot of money, so the park sounds like a great idea. You hop on the train, that’s $2.75 and meet your friend at the park. You hang out, get some sun, snap some pictures then your tummy starts to rumble. You’re hungry. Way too hungry to travel all the way back home to eat so you both decide to get something close. Once at the restaurant you need an appetizer for the table, at least one cocktail because hey you’re out of the house so it’s a celebration and then your main courses. All in all dinner cost about $45.00 for each of you. Oh and don’t forget you have to get back home, that train ride is another $2.75. A day of hanging out at the park with a friend cost you around $50.50. The average New Yorkers does not have that type of money to blow often. So recreating the indulgent nights out Carrie and her friends always had is not an option for many of us. Here finding fun isn’t hard but those good carefree nights you share with friends are always worth it.

 

    Many things are filmed in New York City but living here is nothing like a TV show. You have to create your experience. Almost three years in New York City and I’m still learning and experiencing new things and honestly in a city like this I hope that’s always the case.

 

I may not be Carrie Bradshaw but my New York City story is still pretty good!

 

Xoxo

-Sigourneyb