Tuesday, March 20, 2007

It takes a village to raise a Hannah

Yep, 'tis true. I was thinking about this recently: NY is really a village. All of my different walks of life - from volunteer asides, to professional connections, to freelancing networks - somehow I always stumble across someone-who-knows-someone. Surprising? It was to me...at first.

See, I moved up here from 8 years in the Carolinas (both of 'em) where I either knew everyone (one of the reasons I was ready to leave Raleigh) or no one (one of the reasons I was ready to leave Greenville). Of course, there were many, many reasons why I chose to leave both large towns, but compared to NYC, they were both very definitely literal villages.

NYC is scary to folk. My sister put off coming here for ages, even when she was living in Boston and Vermont, because her mental image of NYC was unfriendly, intimidating skyscrapers. True, they exist, but who lives in Midtown? Well, you have to be a 'local yokel' to understand that, no? When she came to visit me several years ago, one of her comments was how livable NYC really is. And it is. There ARE literal villages and wonderful communities within the monstrous city at-large. (and this was back when I barely knew the city myself, so imagine what her experience could be NOW)

In my 4 years of being here, I've collected a wonderful assortment of friends, colleagues, and contemporaries. What I'm finding whenever I try to branch out, do something new, exciting, and/or different, I'm connected. Surprising. Why? Well, I guess there's a part of me that thought NYC was unfriendly and intimidating, too. But it's not...and I LOVE my 'Six Degrees of Separation' life!!

Who knew?!

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