My best friend had gotten accepted to dental school at Columbia Univeristy, and it was time for him to move to New York in August of 2002. After a very late red-eye flight from Seattle to New York City, we gathered his 10 boxes of belongings and caught a cab from the airport to the student accommodations where he was staying. Neither of us had even been to New York City before, much less lived there. The taxi took us through some of the worst neighborhoods we had ever seen, and we just stared at each other wondering if he had made a huge mistake. Ultimately, we were dropped off in front of his Upper West Side apartment building and breathed a sigh of relief. It was the New York City we had in mind originally after all, complete with his classic Manhattan-sized 350 square foot apartment with an efficiency kitchen. The difficult part now was finding a place to park to get his stuff transferred into his new apartment. The taxi had to park a half block away, so we were forced to painfully carry his belongings a half of a block, and then up 3 flights of stairs, to his apartment. It was a classic New York City moment. It was magical for both of us, with my best friend living in the Big City. That night we also had the loudest thunderstorms I’ve ever heard, and I saw a bolt strike the Chrysler Building. We had arrived in the Big Apple!
