The Glass Slipper

So, I moved away from Queens. I moved away from my first New York job, the horrible Greek restaurant that stared me in the face every day. I moved away from that dreaded street where those muggers decided I was their perfect target. I moved away from the little wannabe boutique and the Italian memories it held...I moved away from the plunger-giving drug store.... I moved away from the intersection where rivaling street meat vendors set up shop every single day on opposite corners filling the air with an odor that both made you hungry and a little sick to your stomach. I moved away from the place where the majority of the people I know live in New York. I moved away from the place that once held so much promise to a NEW New Yorker.

I decided to migrate south....

...to Brooklyn.

I moved to a place where I met my first boyfriend in New York. I moved to a place where trees lined streets with beautiful brownstones and converse-wearing people read books on their stoops. I moved to a place where Trader Joe's neighbor is American Apparel. I moved to a place where my window overlooks the East River meeting the Hudson and the south tip of Manhattan and Lady Liberty looks at me every morning and reminds me to get going. I moved to a place owned by a Japanese artist and her family who are also now my neighbors. (Is that really any surprise?)

There are bonsai trees on the window sill in the stairwell... My apartment is oddly Japanese in style.... and I feel like maybe, this apartment found me just when I needed it.

But, today, while tying up loose ends with my "old" apartment, I exited the subway on Steinway.... the street that tried just a little too hard... the street that couldn't decide its identity... the street that so many times, annoyed me and disgusted me, and even sometimes scared me... and somehow, today, it made me admittedly, a little sad..... I am not exactly sure why....

Perhaps it felt like I was running away.... or maybe it felt like I had been a bit defeated by my first year in New York.... Until now in my life, the "glass slipper" had fit perfectly (literally and figuratively), and for some reason, Queens/New York was not proving to be the kingdom of my happily ever after.... Would moving south even change the way this "fairy tale" was headed?

As a veteran of living a life as close to a fairy tale as one can, there was always something missing in those dear stories..... I always wanted more adventure, more struggle, more challenges.... to make the happy ending that much sweeter and deserved.... I suppose New York is giving me just what I asked for!!!

So, as I continue to embark on the adventure of auditions in crowded studios, odd jobs, the search for the ever-elusive equity card, the hunt for a decent agent, dance classes, voice lessons and coachings, acting workshops - my "happily ever-after", I can only dream that someday someone will hire me and slip not a glass slipper, but a La Duca on my foot.... a shoe that was born to dance the night away on a Broadway stage. -M