How I Got Here, Part I

Once they find out I am originally from MN, the first question out of peoples' mouths is always:  "Why did you move to New York?"   This seems normal enough, but it's always asked as if there has to be some grand reason, and always with a hint of wonder and awe. The subtext being, "How could a little farm girl from practically the middle-of-nowhere make it all the way out here??" Nevermind the fact that I grew up shuttling between downtown Minneapolis and, admittedly, the sticks(but we certainly did not have a farm), or the fact that Minnesota is by no means "the middle of nowhere"(that's North Dakota). 

But I've come to learn that when one has spent enough time in NY or is a native, the majority of the rest of America is like uncharted wild-lands, where the residents are slack-jawed yokels voting against human rights and marrying their cousins.  This perception is due to an obvious contentment in ignorance and the incorrect belief that NY is all that matters.

And so I see it in their eyes, the phenomenon of a Minnesota-born woman landing in NY. I myself am wondering what they expect to hear as my explanation.  Perhaps I navigated my way here with the help of a guide, Lewis and Clark style?  Did I fight my way out of a town of 200, crushing stereotypes and defying all odds?  Or maybe I won a scholarship, and am merely a student-tourist, one of the many who will return back to the safety of my roots upon completion of my tour-of-student-duty.

But in reality, the reason I moved to NY is quite simple, and my answer never wavers: "Because I love it here."  I then elaborate with the story that to me, is entirely defining. 

I have two older brothers, and when I was in 1st grade, they were in 2nd and 5th, respectively.  Deciding it was time for a family vacation, my semi-eccentric parents came up with two options to present my brothers and me.  Where we ended up going was completely up to us.  Our options?  DisneyWorld, or New York City.

Obviously we all chose DisneyWorld! Look at how old we were!  But Mom and Dad, they lied (and not for the first time.  Ask me how my brothers and I learned what the word "accolades" means...)! Despite our choosing DisneyWorld (duh!), they forced us to go to NYC instead, breaking our wee hearts into a million little pieces, to be swept away right along with our dreams of meeting The Great Mickey Mouse.....

Oh wait, no, that's not how it happened at all.

My brothers and I, at ages 6, 7, and 10, unanimously decided that New York City was JUST the place for us to spend a week-long family vacation.

UNANIMOUSLY!  I don't know why, I don't know how.  But some instinct told us that reality was greater than fiction, and NY was the place to be.  (Some years later my mom did take the three of us down to DisneyWorld, and it was awesome.)

After that trip, my fate was sealed.  I would make a few more pilgrimages out here throughout the years before finally, I was 18 and a high school graduate.  I figured the only way to get to NY was to go to College there.  When I didn't get into NYU, the only school I applied to (I know, I know) I was beyond devastated.  The words that could most accurately illustrate my dismay have yet to be created.  But, exhibiting the kind of get-over-it-and-figure-out-another-way gumption necessary to live here in the first place, I quickly moved on to Plan B (no, not the emergency contraceptive.  I don't think that existed yet).

There were always two dreams occupying much of my brain: To move to NY, and to be an actress ( grrroooan. I hate clichés.)  I tried my best to combine them, and auditioned for a two-year acting conservatory program.  I didn't really want to go to this school; I wanted to take all kinds of classes and end up with a degree, but at that point the number one goal was to just get myself to NY.  So when I was accepted into the American Musical and Dramatics Academy, I was thrilled to finally have my key to the door of NY, but less thrilled about who was loaning me that key.

My parents, bless their powers of observation, understood that acting and NY were two separate dreams, that I didn't really want to go to this school, but that I didn't know how else to accomplish goal/dream numero uno of just moving to NY.

And so over lunch one day, they suggested the most brazen and UNFATHOMABLE of ideas:  Why not take a year off from school and just move to NY and work?

....That's....that's an option? It had NEVER occurred to me.  But as soon as Dad laid it out there, it seemed so obvious, so thrilling, so.... “dream come true”.

And so that is what I did.  On Halloween, 2003, Mom and I flew out to NY to move me in.  I got my first job at a Bath and Body Works 3 blocks away and thus began my new life.

It's been 7 years, but there's no itch.  Not even from bedbugs.