NYC 2018: 5 Years Later, What's Changed?

Hi There...

 

   Today I wanna share with you my experience of moving to New York City after five years I was there for the first time it was back then when I fell in love for the city. I wanna take you on a journey with me, comparing what's different, what remains the same and how I felt during all this process. I'm already at home, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yeah I came back to my place to start over or pick up where I left off but that's a topic for another post. I hope that by the end of this story you can realize how amazingly extraordinary life is, we plan things, we sacrifice, we work very hard and we pray for our gods to ask for guidance and strength  and at the end we end up getting something much bigger, A LESSON, be open to understand what's life trying to teach you. Otherwise, you won't be able to get what you've been working for.

  On December 13th of 2013 I packed my bags, said my goodbyes to family, friends and pretty much everybody I knew. I was excited, for the first time I'd be ALONE, by myself, I'd be calling the shots and far away from everything/one that held me accountable back home. I wasn't very sure of how I'd support myself but I believed having positive thoughts was enough. I got there, very tired but nothing mattered because I was accomplishing a life goal, which I know is much bigger than just a dream. We dream all the time but only a few of these dreams we go after. NYC was the one I chose to go after and so I did.

  I saw a reality completely different from the one I had in my country and I'm gonna tell you some of the things that made me fall in love with that place. First of all I loved the customs, I never identified myself as an ordinary Brazilian because I never liked anything every Brazilian did so feeling like an outsider made me think my place on earth was there. Second of all the American people seemed so polite, honest and kind that I was pretty impressed to see and they were very VERY different from the people I had around me then finally I wasn't very aware of political and economical matters but when you go to a capitalist country like the U.S. it's almost impossible to avoid the matter. In Brazil we learn from our parents and people in general that we shouldn't get involved with anything related to politics, religion and sexual orientation. I could debate about these topics with people and finally express myself on these matters in a way that I felt I was being heard and not only exposing myself to a danger unknown and finally the sense of freedom is huge, you walk around without worrying that you might get mugged or killed. It was the first time I felt what it was like to be "free".

  As you can imagine not everything were unicorns&rainbows, After a couple of weeks I was there I started to feel alone and I tried to fill up this hole going out on dates. Dating in NYC is a challenge, one of the many you will face off on a daily basis. Maybe it's just me being dramatic but to me it was impossible to find a nice guy to go out with and I'll explain why. Well, like any modern person who lives in this century I find people to go out on dates through dating apps with that said you may wonder why I said it was something (almost) impossible to do. Can you imagine, in a crowded city like New York how long does it take to find someone who's worth going out with? Yeah, it didn't work, at least I made some friendships. Besides doing what every tourist do, I took some time to enjoy myself and the city. There was nothing like getting a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop and taking a long walk in Central Park while you were trying to keep warm. I knew that at some point I'd have to say good-bye but when the day came I wasn't ready for it but I had a plan, I told myself I'd come back, SOON.

  My long-time friends often say I'm a mystery box, they say they're always finding new stuff about

me, I don't know if that's true because I don't mean to hide stuff out however you must show to me you're worth of listening to my stories, I just don't open up to every and each person I meet. But I can tell you I keep all my promises even when I shouldn't. After five rough years I came back. Older, wiser and ready to live what was meant to be. I saw myself in the city that I loved, walking around the same places, eating at the same places and re-living some stuff. The sense of freedom was the same, I felt amazingly good having to keep the focus only on myself. Dating was still a hell of a challenge, especially now with more people living in the city. It seems that what you are and what you want in life doesn't matter on dates anymore, people aren't interested in talking to get to know you, they wanna see a dick picture more than they wanna see you're face. I mean, it happens in Sao Paulo too but in a less disturbing way, at least they pretend they wanna get to know you. This time, I took the time to really go sightseeing and taking pictures, I'm uploading the pictures I took to an online album, in which you see clicking here.

  It's funny to see how much we change over time. That boy who'd do anything to live in NYC wasn't there anymore I guess there are more important things in life for me now like, being around people who love me, having a good friend to listen to me when I need and also being there for a real friend, being able to work with something that I care about and much more... But we can talk more about this later what I want you to know is that I wasn't the same guy, but It doesn't mean the city was less exciting than it was but the way I enjoyed it was completely different, It could be described as mature and down to earth perhaps. I'm glad I worked as had as I did to give myself the chance to live this experience because It made me stronger and more focused on what I want in life. I was definitely a reality check for me.

Thanks for reading...

Seeya

Douglas Migliassi