Watching My Dream Turn Into Reality

My shoes are strewn around the living room as I bargain with my mom about how many pairs of heels are absolutely necessary for me to take to college. My bags are packed with the puffy North Face jackets I am taking in place of my usual summer tank tops. My parents are confirming our ticket and hotel reservations. Although I've been dreaming of this moment since I was a little girl, it only hits me right now. In a week I will be attending my dream school, NYU, and living in my dream city, New York.

My love and desire for New York City started ever since I was a little girl. Now, I know what you're thinking. Small town girl who hopes to move to the big city one day? Pretty cliche, and also the plot for just about every Sarah Jessica Parker movie. But this is different. I love the bucolic neighborhood I grew up in, complete with green lawns and white picket fences that have come to be typical of suburbia. The kind of place where you're friends with all your neighbors and the closest Pizza Hut is just a five minute drive. But I always knew that I was going to be big. And as much as I love San Jose, I know that what I want to do with my life has to be somewhere bigger than this. I don't want to work a 9-to-5 job and come home to a pot roast dinner and a German Shepherd named Tag or Scooter. I want to live where there are lights, endless energy, a fire inside people that pushes them not just to dream big dreams, but to get up off of their couch and keep running until they make it a reality. And I could only think of one place that checked off all the items on my list.

It is impossible not to fall in love with New York. Unless you're a Red Sox fan, I suppose. But I fell hard. And with a university that prides itself on being "in and of the city," it wasn't long before I fell in love with New York University as well. I want to avoid the cliched term "dream school," but heck, it was my dream school. You walk out of class and you're in the rush of the people, buildings, and honking taxis. There are boundless opportunities, and no one is telling that your dream is too hard or impractical. In fact, they're all telling you to go for it. So when I saw an e-mail telling me that the school I wanted so badly also wanted me, I was happy beyond words. And believe me, I'm always talking, so it really takes a lot for me to not have any words.

So now, I'll be living in a hipster studio apartment drinking mint coffee in an urban SoHo restaurant. More like trying to squeeze into my tiny dorm while drinking cheap coffee out of my broke college-kid fund, but same difference.

Come join me as I explore the city, tell you about my ups and downs (I mean that entirely in a literal sense, there are a lot of escalators in New York), and even give you some advice on what to do if you're planning on going to NYC or just somewhere out of your comfort zone. But of course, giving you advice from my mistakes assumes that I make mistakes. Which I never do.

I am happy to say my dream has come true. Now I'm getting ready to live it. I'm anxious, excited, and scared. But none of these compare to my gut feeling of surety that I'm right where I need to be.

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