Ladders...and lots of Shoots

I can't remember how often friends and strangers have quoted Sinatra's famed line: "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere". In fact, I've heard it so many times, anywhere is starting to sound pretty damn good. One of the problems with "making it" in New York is that progress is almost unmeasurable.

Not only will you constantly be trumped by the inevitable advantages of the rich and famous (nepotism, plastic surgery, whatever you want to call it), but the standards are ever changing. Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, heels are out and flats are in, hell, riding the subway might even become cool now that you have to make over 30k a year to afford it.

Making it here is like baking a cake in a vortex. You think you have a simple recipe requiring only time and elbow grease, but when you look back to check the measurements, the rules have completely changed, the oven temperature is too hot and you brought the wrong ingredients!

When I moved to NYC, I brought my "A" game; an applicable degree from one of the best Journalism schools in the country, the humbleness required to sleep on the floor of a shit-hole apartment for the first 6 months and enough willpower to get me through a few years acting as head footstool in a variety of media companies. I'm starting to think that, in spite of Sinatra's mantra, I brought the wrong ingredients.

The worst part is, I don't know what I'm missing. I may need to reserve a spot on the train to anywhere...



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