Life by the Cube

Living in New York is like one big constant reminder that you’re human.

Maybe it’s because in no other place can you be constantly (and I mean constantly) surrounded by people and not even know who they are. And people here like to talk to you as you’re waiting in line at the corner bodega, waiting for the bus, waiting in an elevator, waiting for the subway doors to open at the appropriate subway stop. Because that’s what we’re all doing here in this fast-paced-metropolis – we’re waiting.

We’re waiting to get a table at the hot new restaurant, waiting in line at a bar, waiting for a cab, waiting for a chance, a big break, waiting for love to walk through the door so that we can stop telling everyone the obvious but sad truth that though we are constantly surrounded by people (and I mean constantly), it’s easier to master a Rubik’s cube than it is to meet someone in Manhattan.

And that’s what life is - one long never-ending quest for all the sides of our lives to match up.
blue
white
red
green
and it’s difficult, almost impossible, and at times you have one color of each in single scattered boxes on each side and you don’t think you’ll ever be able to make anything work. So you tackle the rows one by one and keep trying to remind yourself that making things work takes time and patience and the aching ability to not give up after you’ve turned and twisted and thought and over-thought how best to make it all come together.

I was never any good at the Rubik’s cube. I always spent too much time trying to make it work, trying, trying, to make it work, and never feeling like I was getting anywhere.

Like the cube New York isn’t an easy thing to master, and all the people buzzing around its sidewalks know it. That’s why they’re all waiting. Because they know that one day, (and no one knows when) everything will come together, because the subway keeps bringing you to your future no matter long you wait for it, and one day the elevator doors will open and the person who walks in will change your life and you won’t even know it.

Living in New York, is like one big constant reminder, that you’re human.