My inaugural blogging

I have always wondered what this would feel like. It is refreshing, really. I am now blogging. Anthony P. Sheehan, blogger. I like the way that sounds.

I just moved to New York City a couple of weeks ago for an internship at a public relations firm in Times Square. I admit that it's a change from my lovely (a.k.a. uneventful) hometown of Boise, Idaho (I acknowledge that as a gross understatement). The first week I walked around bright-eyed and frightened as I tried to figure out which way was uptown and which way was downtown. As I would wander and bite my nails, I was shoved out of the way and "politely" asked to step aside (New York uses "dumbass" in the same context as Boise uses "please," as in "Get out of the way, please/dumbass."). I have now acclimated myself to the atmosphere to a certain extent, but I still feel like people can still smell my Idaho-ness as I walk down the street. I have tried everything, too. I bought a Knicks hat. I avoid eye contact with everyone. If people ask me directions, I point to my watch and pretend like I know where I am going. But it just doesn't work. I don't strike up a conversation unless I have a direct connection and a selfish motive (which is every New Yorker's mantra). In short, I disguise myself as a New Yorker. But I fall short.

I am still something different. I am still timid when I order doughnuts in the morning, and I don't even know what a felafel is. I answer "yes" every day to the shish kabob guy on the corner to a question I don't understand. I still gawk when I see a street performer or a Hasidic Jew. After thought and consideration, I now realize that no matter how hard I try, I am plagued with chronic un-New Yorker-ness, and there is no cure.