“What’s your favorite thing about New York?”
It's a question I get asked on each visit home to Ireland, and it's always a difficult one to answer because, truthfully, it's so hard to choose just one thing. There's so much to love here.
After spending some time thinking about it, I’ve concluded that it’s the abundance of choice itself that I love so much about New York.
At the heart of it, choice is why New Yorkers love New York so much. This city is so abundant with selection and convenience, that it can sometimes feel like the entire world is on my doorstep. All but two nations are represented here by way of cuisine (which results in a lot of decision-fatigue when choosing dinner!), and the differing ethnicities of neighborhoods makes strolling from one to another feel like a brief wander around the world. Crossing Mulberry Street, which divides Chinatown and Little Italy, gives the sense of crossing an imaginary border from China into Italy.
For a Friday night drink, you can choose one dollar beers in a dive bar in the hipster mecca of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, with peanut shells covering the floor and dogs roaming to the sound of live country music. Or you can drink martinis while celeb-spotting in the swanky Meatpacking district. For me, the former is always more enjoyable.
Of course, choice in New York extends to much more than just food and drink. You can choose to try new things. You can do what you want to do, and be who you want be. Many of my fellow Irish immigrants here have had the freedom and fortune to choose new careers.
I left a job and an industry I no longer enjoyed, and found a new one that I love, working for a disruptive start-up stock exchange on Wall Street. I’m constantly aware the role and the company I work for would not have been a choice available to me at home.
When not working the long New York hours, there’s an endless choice of things to do to fill the precious free time. I’ve picked up some new hobbies, from beer and coffee brewing to freelance photography and yoga.
In summer it’s easy to escape the heavy, humid heat of the city to go surfing in the Rockaways, while in winter, the ski slopes of Mt. Snow are just a bus ride away.
I often find that if I’m bored in New York....it’s by choice too. I sometimes have to choose to stay in my apartment to keep my wallet and waistline in check, which is no easy task in a city which on a weekly basis presents new “must-try” restaurants, bakeries and bars.
You can even choose how you view and experience this city. You can tailor it be the New York that best suits you. Times Square can be viewed as a hellish tourist trap which serves only to be avoided, or it can be seen each time through the fresh eyes of a tourist, the way you first saw it. Personally, it serves as a pulsing neon reminder that I live in the place that I grew up dreaming about.
You can choose to view New York as a big city that feels small, or a small island that feels big. I'm sometimes awestruck by the might of the Manhattan skyline; and yet, I sometimes feel right at home in my familiar little neighborhood (Astoria, Queens) where I run into friends on the street, and have local bars where the bartenders greet me like a life-long friend.
Some choices of course, are not pleasant or easy. This year I’ve missed two weddings of close friends. And when it comes to time off, I have to choose between going somewhere new and exotic, or travelling home to see my family and friends whom I love and miss (and to get my annual dose of Irish countryside). The latter always wins.
Ultimately, moving to a new country is full of hard choices: new job, new apartment, and a new circle of friends. But if you choose carefully, you can really grow and reinvent yourself.
You can challenge your own beliefs and perspectives by surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. You can challenge what you think you’re capable of by remembering that a little bit of audacity and determination (and an Irish accent) can go a long way. And you can stave off pangs of homesickness by embracing the emigration experience - and remembering that it’s an opportunity denied to many.
Moving to New York was hard choice. But ultimately, it’s the best one I ever made.
