Concrete Jungle.

My sister Ashlee and I had childhood dreams of living together in NYC. She was going to be a writer and I was going to be a lawyer. Or I was going to be a writer and she was going to be a designer. Or I was going to be a designer and she was going to be a writer.. Clearly, our direction wasn't focused quite yet, but either way we had our sights set on the city that never sleeps.

I found my way here through a series of stumbles and struggles and lots of hard work and now find myself working as a designer. In NYC. Clarification, being a designer in NYC or anywhere else for that matter does not mean you have the free reign of creativity to create all the beautiful things your little mind can conjure. I am editing the designs of the "real designer" (put in quotations because he doesn't ACTUALLY design anything) but anyway you have to start somewhere, right?

So, essentially I am living my childhood dream though it isn't as shiny and perfect as my adolescent visions would have liked to believe. There are no Carrie Bradshaw's, by which I mean freelance writers who live in brownstones in the west village and have a wardrobe consisting only of designer labels. But there are endless places to see and things to do. There is an energy that can move and inspire you. And there is loads of good food.

But there are many elements about NYC that make it difficult to live a quality life here. I realize that a quality life is a subjective thing but for a girl that grew up with all the space and free range a heart could desire, living in teeny tiny quarters and traveling everyday in teeny tiny quarters and walking outside and immediately being thrust into throngs of people can be exhausting. It is a constant challenge to maintain friendships as people are always moving, always changing and if you don't live in the same neighborhood it can require a year of planning to find a time to meet. There really is no ringing up your friends to tell them you're bored and ask them to come over and eat ice cream with you. When you are finished with university and flung into the "real world" those closely-knit-and-bonded relationship are so rare.

My love, who I am so happy to have as he makes the greatest playmate and I would be awful lonesome without him, feels the same way about our beloved city. It has become a situation of "impossible to leave, impossible to stay"..(is that a saying? if not, notice my genius). We met here, we fell in love here and the city provided such a wonderful and exciting backdrop for our relationship. It will always be such a special place to me.

We are talking seriously about crossing the pond to settle in the birthplace of democracy.. or the birthplace of my Ilias, Greece. If and when this will happen all remains to be discovered but I will miss my concrete jungle.