How to Fall in Love with a City in One Week or Less:

1. Spend way too much time outside of your apartment. Avoid going home. Pack three pair of shoes, a pair of pants, and a sweater in your Longchamp tote so you won’t have to go home. Eat all of your meals out, or avoid eating if you’re cheap. Coffee is a meal, right? Yes.
2. Find your spots. Fall in love with your special nook in Central Park. Spend warm days lying in the Sheep Meadow with your favorite New Yorkers. Do this while playing all of your favorite Goo Goo Dolls, Third-Eye Blind, and Death Cab songs on a guitar brought from home. Soak in the rays of one another. Declare the West Village as your favorite neighborhood. One day later, decide that your favorite neighborhood is Chelsea. That you were meant to live in Chelsea. Do this with every new neighborhood until you find a real favorite. 
3. Pretend that you understand the subway system. Be thrilled when you get from the Upper West Side to Long Island City without having to look at your map. But don’t show your excitement. If you absolutely must, look at your New York CIty Subway Map app in secret. And never, ever ask someone for directions. You’re a New Yorker, remember? Tip for double points: be thrilled (but not too thrilled) when a tourist asks you for directions. Roll your eyes, lower your big sunglasses, and give them directions, exasperatedly. If you don’t know the answer, lie. But never, ever let people know that you’ve only been here for one week. You own this city. 
4. Love your friends. Realize that, out of the 8 million people on this island, you know the coolest ones. 
5. Go out to dinner at 11PM. Even though you just ate dinner four hours ago. Realize that you’re not hungry, but order dessert from your Columbian waiter at your classy Greenwich Village restaurant. Feel like the classiest ever. Hint: do this with a great old friend, and it will be even better. 
6. Look at NYC apartments on Craigslist. Decide that you’re moving here for good. 
7. Meet someone. Pretend that you are going to fall in love. Spend too much time together for three days. Forget about classwork, school, your friends, your internship. Eventually, realize that you’re really just friends and that kissing is awkward anyway. Decide that your “career” is too demanding for this. 
8. Become happy with the anonymity, privacy, and loneliness that comes with living in New York. Know that you are becoming a better person. Know that this is what keeps the city’s heart beating. That this is what keeps you creative. That this is what you’ve dreamed of. This is New York, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.