A Tale of Two Cities.

Sex and the City – The reality.

My time in college was spent lying in bed with the girls, hung-over and binge-watching Sex and the City.

We wished our days away dreaming of the bright lights of New York City. We often dreamt that we were in Manhattan dressed to nines, dancing in roof top bars and sipping cocktails. I fancied myself as a bit of a Carrie, as an aspiring writer/journalist, I could picture myself living in a fabulous West Village apartment. I would have the clothes, the shoes and the friends to go along with it.

Roll on a few years, my friend and I had graduated from the University of Limerick and we decided that we would set sail across the Atlantic to live the American dream. We were after all ‘too big’ for small town Ireland that we were leaving behind, or so we thought.

I remember the day we landed in New York- bright eyed a bushy tailed. Completely naïve to the world that we were about to enter. Sally and I had lived together in college, so we were not worried about moving to New York together let alone living together. We did not heed the warnings from our friends and family, “you know what they say, if you want to know someone go and live with someone.” We went against the grain; we found a two-bedroom apartment in Queens, we decided to share a room to save money and rent the second room to another Irish girl. What could go wrong?

Before long, the two college friends who had once slept in each other’s bed every night of the week were sharing a room and barely speaking. You see, it is one thing to choose to spend every waking moment together; it’s another to have no choice but to spend every moment together. In college we had our own rooms to go to and now we had only our beds. To make matters worse we started working in the same Irish bar. Working and living together was not our smartest idea.

We worked long hours and our schedules meant we were like ships in the night, we barely saw each other. Sally wanted to get a job in something related to fashion and design. I wanted to write for a newspaper or at the very least something media related. However, we quickly found out that these jobs were not easy to come by. They usually came in the form of internships for little or no pay. So, we worked in bars where the money was good, and the hours were terrible- because we had rent to pay. Our American dream seemed to slip further from our hands into a cold reality.  Our friendship survived- some friends are more like family.

Sex and the City portray New York to be this wonderful place where you see all your friends all the time and where money comes easier than air. And Yes, New York is that but what they fail to mention is that you work VERY hard for everything you have. When I first moved to New York I was shocked by the crazy people, by the crass and callous manner that most people possess. The pushing and shoving that you endure on the subway and in the streets. People walk at a hundred miles per hour and homeless people harass you for money.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that New York is not exactly what you see in the movies. I mean, yes, it is busy, crazy and wild but if you are not careful New York will swallow you up and spit you out. NYC is not just glitz and glamour you see in Sex and the City, it is hard work and hustle.