musings of improbability...

At the beginning of the week I had the chance to read this lovely list from the Thought Catalog involving 15 reasons why people move to New York City... Though I could identify with many of the reasons, number 8 struck a very personal chord:

"8. We have aspirations of being the best in our field. We are hungry, hungry tigers with a serious work ethic. You don’t move to New York to do Nothing..."

I can't agree enough with this...Why would you ever put yourself through the torture and literal financial suicide of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world if you didn't have a very strong desire for something?

Whether you are here to make your dreams come true, further your personal and career goals, or to live the most hedonistic night life imaginable, everything is possible in these boroughs.

Something came to mind while I was walking in Astoria late one evening... that we should truly not focus on considering the impossibility of things, rather the improbable. Nothing is impossible. Everything has a degree of improbability...The beauty of probability, however, is the constant fluctuation- the scale can always move in the other direction and you play a significant role in this.

So while things in life may seem improbable (not impossible), we, these wandering dreamers of New York City, have inside each of us an ignited passion that moves us forward, constantly...

Something I have learned is that the golden-age dream of "making it" no longer exists. I could go on for hours about that phrase but for another time. As I have made my way through the first five years of my twenties, I have come to a very serious conviction that opening yourself to the infinite possibilities of the world, to shred yourself of these socially induced notions that lead to human tunnel vision, is one of the greatest ways to fire your desire to do. Through action, we are able to learn the greatest of our character.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson