Life After College: I’m Lost (Literally)

I had a friend visiting me this weekend and even though my life is in shambles, I was determined to impress her with my knowledge of New York and my ability to stand on the subways without falling at every stop (an extraordinary feat due to my complete lack of coordination). If she happened to have a good time, that would just be a bonus; the main focus was on her being impressed with my new life.

So my other tri-state area friend (she’s from NJ despite what she may tell you) and I found what looked like a cheap Mexican restaurant known for great food and greater margaritas. Unfortunately, as I’m discovering more and more, online reviewers cannot always be trusted. We arrived at the restaurant and it resembled a cross between an abandoned truck stop and a dive bar in Rochester. So obviously I was way excited to eat there – there’s nothing less harmful than bad Mexican food.

Sadly, my friends weren’t as willing to risk a few shooting stomach pains so we ended up looking for a new restaurant. However being as this was my first time on the Lower East Side, (excluding my visit to the tenement museum) and the streets aren’t numbered, I had no idea where to go and or even how to get back to a main street. But I had to keep up my appearances of knowing what I was doing so I marched along pretending like I knew where we could find dinner. And after making a few circles (purposefully, I told my friend) around the area, we found a place for dinner – only an hour after we planned to eat.

The experience made me realize that not only am I hungrier than a wolf by 8 pm, but also that I don’t really know the city as well as I thought I did. If it hadn’t been for mobile Google Maps, I would have walked my friends over the Brooklyn Bridge and claimed it was the lesser known part of 5th avenue.

Maybe I should stop spending so much time worrying about finding a real job and instead spend more time exploring the city. After all, I am still young and able-bodied. And now that monsoon season is over (cross your fingers) there’s no reason for me to spend all my free time sending out resumes and hanging out with the g-parents.

Lesson learned.