This weekend marks one year since Kendall and I moved to New York City. We officially left our home in Dallas on March 17, 2017, and arrived two days later at a basement apartment in Queens.

Now, many people might say to this, “A year? So what? What’s the big deal? Doesn’t everybody do that?” Well, to those people, I would say, “Yeah, it is a big deal. Please take your negativity elsewhere, because I have no use for it.”

This year has been, by far, the hardest year of my life. What do you expect when you move halfway across the country, though, right? When we arrived in New York a year ago, Kendall didn’t have a job, and I had basically no plan aside from “go to lots of auditions.” But we were full of hope and excitement for our New York Adventure. We knew we would make it, and we would be A-OK!

Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case. Kendall had more trouble finding a job than we thought he would, and that meant it was really difficult for us to find a permanent place to live, rather than a sublet.

 

It would take us 4 months and 6 apartments until Kendall was hired, and we were able to have a “home” once again. In those 4 months, we lived all over Manhattan, found a couple of places we like that we still return to as our “regular” spots, had a few visits from family and friends, and I got my first NYC credit on my resume. I was also fortunate enough to attend a Weekend Intensive (after just two weeks of living here!) where I learned all the things I never knew about the acting industry in general, and the New York acting scene, in particular.

In July, we moved to our last sublet, which ended up being the apartment we signed a lease for. We were finally settled, and didn’t have to worry about where we were going to live next month. We had to wait another month before we could get our furniture back, but even so, we breathed a sigh of relief. I left the Receptionist job I had been working all summer, and booked my second NYC resume credit. We spent Christmas here in New York, and saw the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and the Radio City Rockettes; we took Monroe to Central Park so he could run and play, visited Museums, and just simply enjoyed living in this wonderfully vibrant city.

I have been part of staged readings and play festivals, attended Broadway shows and been backstage at a real Broadway theater, lent my voice talents to some Loop Group projects, attended film festivals and showings, made new friends, and, most importantly, learned A LOT about myself and what I’m able to handle.

 

 

I am so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here, and the contacts I’ve made here. I am still working hard to accomplish the career goals I have, and I know that I am in the exact right place where I need to be in order to accomplish them. I don’t know what will happen next, and I don’t know where I’ll be a year from now. There were a lot of times this year when I felt like giving up and going back to Dallas. But Kendall and I stuck it out, and we’ve been here, if a bit unsettled, for a full twelve months. So, no matter what happens next, we will always have “that time we lived in New York City” as part of our story.