The City

This should go without saying. Especially in light of the timeframe between now and my (not so) recent posts.

Life in New York moves quickly.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about why. When you feel like you blink and your entire day is over, it's hard not to panic and start to lose your mind. There are a lot of crazy people here.

But when I want to go somewhere, it is not up to me the timing of my arrival. It is also not up to me if I will be sitting for the journey and in what condition I will arrive (wet, dry, sweaty, covered in water sprayed on me from a truck hitting a puddle, etc). Here's an example: today I was late to work because I missed my train because I needed to get a new MetroCard and was stuck behind someone else in line who needed a card but also needed help buying her own card so I had to walk her through the various screens. She makes it on the next train. I miss mine because I type in my zipcode for my card wrong. I have to start over, the train whizzes by the station. I lean against the wall and eat my donut/coffee - which I totally had time to get, by the way.

The city dictates the pace your life goes in. If the trains are running slow, the trains are running slow and there's nothing you can do about it. You can run and push people and mutter under your breath as you dodge across the street, nearly being hit by a car, but you're not going to get there any faster.

There is also no going-directly-to-a-certain-place here. Back home, I would get in my car, drive somewhere, park and be there. Here I have to walk to a station, down stairs, ride in a car, up stairs, and walk. It's indirect. The city may be grid-like in its design but there are no straight lines.

It is this exact indirectness that makes life move quickly. Before you know it you spent all day getting somewhere, or being somewhere. In transit you cannot plan to meet up with anyone. Everything is on a lengthened timeframe. And that makes life go by quickly.

Now it's got to be my new focus just to move with the city. Sway with the car. Walk in the direction of traffic flow. Figure out what it means to have things moving so quickly, now that I can understand the reason (because people always told me life was fast here - but what does that mean?) I can try to make my life work around it.

And not get caught up in the rush.