You all love when I am sharing about my New York adventures/experiences and when I funnily talk about myself and shit I have gone through. Well, since I already guided you step by step to move to the big apple and build your career in NYC, it is time to pull you all back to some of my life stories. The immigrants' blog series will never be over, so no better moment to go back to sharing those crazy moments with you all. In previous blog posts, I mentioned that the hustle of living in the US is real, but now it is time to open up a little more about that.
You guys… that phrase “the hustle is real” is no joke! But like, no joke! I already opened up about my first job in NYC, how I insert myself in the market and how hard I worked to build my way up, but this time I wanted to open up about having 3 different jobs at the same time, sleeping 2 or 3 hours per night, going to school and parting my ass off (lol, but for real).
Well, I do not want to look like a superhero right now, nor do I want anyone to think that I used to do tons of coke (which I never did) to be able to stay awake and handle all of this, but looking back to those days, that is how I feel, lol. This is what focus and determination make you do and that is why a lot of people cannot make it in this city.
Not trying to throw a bunch of information on you, but here is how my life timeline happened in NYC:
Came to NYC to study English for 6 months.
After 6 months, I got a job as a hostess in a bar in the Flatiron district. Worked there for about 3 months.
Got a better-paying job as a salesperson in a boutique store.
Renewed my English school contract for another 6 months and applied to college - in the meantime I was still working at the boutique.
After almost a year I quit the boutique because I was overwhelmed, overworked, not growing, and, mainly, learned that I hate retail.
Started working as a hostess in a bar in Hell’s Kitchen area. I was also going to college here.
After 6 months, I quit the job as a hostess at the bar. Got over it and had to focus on building my career. In the meantime, I was still going to school.
Got a job with a party promoter working 5 nights a week - the main reason why I partied so hard and had no sleep (lol, but for real).
Got a job for that same boutique store, but this time as a graphic designer helping them build their website. This probably lasted for almost 4 months.
Quit the job as a graphic designer for the boutique and got an internship in product development and production management - which led to my career today.
The owner of the bar I used to work at in Hell's Kitchen asked me to hostess twice a week and I was still working with the promoter.
Ok, I am going to stop here because this was the hardest time for me. This was the moment I had school Mon-Fri in the mornings, internship in the afternoon, hostessing at the bar twice a week, and going out 5 nights a week. No jokes, I used to get 3 hours of sleep between the club, school in the morning, and internship in the afternoon. Thank God the hostessing job was only 2 days a week…
After busting my ass like this for an entire semester I learned that I HAD to quit my hostess job and put school classes in the evening, so in that way, I could work all day. I also reduced the number of parties I was working to only 3 nights a week - which was still a lot, but more manageable.
I got to the point that I had 3 jobs and school at the same time. This is one of the main reasons people lose their focus and cannot make it in NYC. You literally bust your ass off. It is really easy to get lost in bad friendships, bad relationships, and bad habits if you are not disciplined and focused. That is one of the main reasons why I decided to create the immigrants' blog series and give you a lot of advice on how to build your life and career in this crazy city - so none of you have to go through all the work and sleepless nights like I did.
Comments