This says it perfectly

17Jul2003 Filed under: Career

Still, as satisfying as it may appear to reject the most powerful, glamorous place in the world (before it rejects you), it can also feel like a cataclysmic decision. After all, in the collective imagination of people from a certain class background and/or a certain educational level, New York is where you’re supposed to make it.

I felt that way about leaving New York, too. I’m interesting in reading the new Meghan Daum book reviewed in the above article…her first one totally resonated with me during my time in New York.

Not staying in New York was a good decision for me. I have enough of a crippling inferiority complex about the fact that I haven’t written that book yet, that I don’t have a regular column in a sassy alternative newsweekly yet, that I’m not freelancing for edgy magazines any more, etc. Being in New York would turn me into an emotional cripple. Even LA is too trend-setty cutting edge hipster for me. But New York City would have made me even more judgemental, impatient, and self-loathing than I already am. Not needed.

All hail Meghan Daum and her move to Lincoln, Nebraska.

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5 Responses to “This says it perfectly”

Nikki
July 18th, 2003 at 8:30 am

Me, too!
My unanswered question - do I regret leaving New York, or do I think I’m supposed to regret leaving New York?
dori
July 18th, 2003 at 12:44 pm

the situation between visiting new york for a couple of months and then leaving is far different from living and working in new york for years, and then leaving (side note: i have a friend, incidentally now living in LA, that claims that leaving this town was a 10-year process for him.)

so then, is meghan daum’s reason for leaving new york (admitted failure). but i don’t champion her as a hero for doing it (perhaps i would if she took off for somewhere a little more, well, interesting… like these guys - although to be fair, being at all willing to live in nebraska is sort of a heroic endeavor in and of itself).

this is not to say i’m not tired as hell of new york and ready to leave as soon as an interesting opportunity presents itself. problem is, after being here for so long, getting over the concept of nowhere being nearly as culturally stimulating (at least not in the US where i could feasibly both live and work) is a long, drawn-out process i’m still not to the end of.
Sincy
July 18th, 2003 at 3:50 pm

chicago - I won’t want to ever leave.
Sarah B.
July 21st, 2003 at 11:53 pm

I loved “My Misspent Youth.”

And evidently I’m coming late to the New York party, as usual.
joe
July 23rd, 2003 at 8:24 am

Thanks for this post - even though I’ve gotten to it even later than Sarah B. There’s this sense that you and Meghan Daum, I suspect, are speaking to exactly what made it okay for me to leave NYC in the first place, although it’s getting harder to recall exactly why I did.

Of course, now I’m in LA - which has metaphysical problems of its own - and I miss NYC more than I’d care to admit.

Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.

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