I lasted less than two years living in Connecticut before I decided to move back to New York City, where I plan to stay.
William Galante
The first time I set foot in Brooklyn was in 2019 to look at an apartment.I vividly remember the slow chug of the M Train over the Williamsburg Bridge — watching the Lower East Side shrink behind me, and the contour of the Kings County skyline approaching across the East River.I was 23. I felt like I'd arrived and my future was limitless. I moved to that apartment. Shoebox would have been a generous description for my $900 a month room with Craigslist roommates.For the next seven years, I bounced between North Brooklyn dwellings, my rent rising faster than inflation. By May 2023, I was paying $1,900 a month to live with two roommates in a basement that had a tendency to flood.Maybe it was a third-life crisis, maybe it was the natural progression of the American millennial, but sometimes I felt like I just needed to touch grass. So I did what many people before me had done: I moved to the country.My grandmother had died about six months prior, and her home on the Connecticut/Rhode Island border was about to sit empty for the summer.This situation, my disdain for my job at the time, and the impending end of my lease seemed to be a cosmic sign that I was meant to go coastal.
