Like every soon-to-be college graduate from a “prestigious” university, I want to move to New York City post-grad. This is a little embarrassing to admit, but I check StreetEasy every day. 

StreetEasy, for all my non-NYC-pilled readers, is a real estate platform similar to Zillow, exclusive to the NYC metropolitan area. It’s a platform where you see how brutal the NYC rental market truly is. 

Some days, I’m realistic, filtering for 2-beds under $3,000 anywhere in the city. Other days, I’m already mentally decorating my $3,000 studio in Park Slope or the Lower East Side, convincing myself that it’s “worth it.”

The rumors are true: shoeboxes going for $4,000, 6-story walkups with no laundry, roach infestations, garden units prone to flooding and apartments without even a window unit (I’ve had enough of that this summer to last a lifetime). 

And yet, apartment showings have lines wrapping around the block, with 50 people waiting outside like it’s Myka on a Friday night.

Despite this, I still find myself wanting to move there. Forget targeting the Big Four or the MBB: It’s NYC or bust. 

As a self-proclaimed “Beli-fluencer,” I can confidently say the food scene is unmatched. NYC offers some of the country’s best — and often cheapest — food from nearly every cuisine imaginable, whether it’s Indian food in Jackson Heights or Taiwanese restaurants in Elmhurst. And not to mention Mimi’s, my frozen yogurt love, of course. 

Then, there’s the walkability. As someone who’s walked Manhattan tip-to-tip and trekked from Evanston to “The Bean,” I’m ready to make walking my main method of transport. 15 miles is nothing in a city where there’s always a new neighborhood to wander into and explore. 

But, to me, NYC only seems attainable for the select few.

In my warped and naive perception, moving to New York immediately after graduation is the clearest sign of success. It means you landed that dream job with a stable source of income and you can move somewhere that people can only dream of calling home for their whole lives. You didn’t just survive the New York rental market: You won.

This summer, it seems like everyone is in NYC but me, and it’s hard not to feel a little jealous. 

Every day I scroll through my Beli feed to see at least a dozen new posts of NYC eats. Even the corporate slop bowls look better there.

It doesn’t help that TikTok spoon-feeds me apartment tours in the East Village and “What I Spend in a Week in NYC” videos every time I open the app. 

If seemingly everyone else is there, what does it say that I’m not?

As a rising senior, I feel like I’m always three steps behind everyone else. I don’t have a job lined up or a clear idea of what I want to pursue beyond this NYC pipe dream. Meanwhile, we’re just around the corner from return-offer season, and it feels like everyone else’s biggest senior-year dilemma is whether to live in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

Deep down, I know my worldview is irrational. Living in New York at 22 isn’t a measure of intelligence, ambition or success.

Yet I can’t help myself from consuming NYC content and obsessively checking StreetEasy.

I’ll see you in Park Slope next June. And if not, well, I guess I flopped. 

We can retroactively delete these stories, right?

David Sun is a rising Medill senior and author of “Perpetual Flop.” He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.