a week in nyc | mid 20’s struggles + my sister moved to nyc!

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

hi how we doing I haven't chitchat with you guys in a while finally back in New York I was gone for over like two 2 and 1/2 months I would say like all of August I fully herited I think I was tired from the summer I was overwhelmed went through a bit of a heartbreak I honestly spent a lot of August alone inside kind of coming out of that and so I'm excited to be social once again summer was really incredible if you've seen some of those videos thanks for watching it's appreciated I don't mean to be that study broad escapism girl but I'm like damn I could really see myself having a next chapter in life in Europe which I'm working on more on that later I was honestly really anxious to come back to New York after spending so much time in Europe but I'm feel like we finally adjusted I'm excited to be social and show you guys what's going on in New York just having a classic New York day as we do I do have an exciting event tonight bringing you guys along I'm deciding this is going to be a good week we got this okay let's go time to deal with the chaos that is my moner plants when I was away I didn't train them in the right direction I got some like growth poles and we're going to try to get this moving back in an upward Direction the AL to discover if I would had the worthiness to be the perfect lover but you stay under I propagated some branches for sage that were just not going in the right Direction and this one I'm actually not too mad about starting to push some of the growth upwards and you know what I think she looks pretty good over here we have this new Leaf that unfurled the way this brings me so much joy I am so proud of her and we have this cutie little Sprout who's making her way these plants truly give me so much joy it's actually kind of fun having something to take care of and see them grow good job guys proud of you this is chaos I just decided in the middle of my workday to start cutting my bangs and I'm someone that generally has insane haircut anxiety it stemed from when I was like 13 and got a bad haircut I don't hate getting my haircut because it's it feels really good I just really really hate when a haircut does not turn out the way I want it even when it's just like 2 in shorter than I asked like it shouldn't be a big deal but something about it just really gives me anxiety and yet here I am cutting my bangs know what the I'm doing I don't think having one eye closed is a good vibe ha Sal is open for business wait I love it okay bks okay that was chaotic of me let's let's get back to working on my way to pretty that today going to uh well well well look who's here look who we have here newest New Yorker fresh off the plane she's here you're way closer to the C oh she's a giant I'm moving to New York well I moved I'm here so I'm going to grad school at NYU and so I moved to New York City yeah she didn't even really want to live in New York but she got that old ride so she's like well it's growing on me it's just little nerve wracking so I'm so grateful that she's here I've never moved into an apartment in a new city like this from scratch like I'm showing up with two suitcases that is it help this kid move in I do want alcohol left over for my 25th birthday it's not what think it's going to be my gosh welcome to my new crib oh I have such a cute fire escape in a tree so excited look for my eyes I know you want to go and I don't blame you at all I'm learning my own skin in Reading what you welcome to my new home you're catching us like 2 hours in the movie It's Hot but but this girl moved to Brooklyn with a450 budget but with a fat broker fee I feel like your moving experience right now is more applicable to a lot of people because is so expensive that unless you're like are really working like a nice corporate job it's just like not affordable so yeah I'll be working a grad student job and doing a few different side vessels follow your dreams yeah get some lunch okay let's do it seconds take that I used to be faster than her but no longer I guess hie we're here at the Ken Park just finished an amazing book I don't know what you're go having a lovely little sunny summer day today's also been incredibly nostalgic because my sister-in-law was like you guys should go to windson which is actually a spot I used to live on the street of when I first moved here so we went there which was so yummy so good highly recommend to live like nearish that area which was so nostalgic cuz now as Sage is moving in kind of having her first year in New York I'm like reflecting a lot on my first year and how much has changed and it was very just like humble simple yeah it was really good for me to see cuz I think living here I compare my life to Lena where she has all these Amazing Friends in a beautiful apartment and it's like wow you started on like Ground Zero I don't know anybody I had a shitty apartment in a not super safe Street and I only say that to say like so much has changed in 5 years and I think it's an important reminder cuz it's like one thing to see the life I'm living now and I'm like it took a lot of work and years to get to this point just such a long journey even like making friends I m I didn't know anybody but I think like coming to somewhere like New York you can really like carve out the kind of experience you want for yourself it's so inspiring for me and for I think anyone who's like moving to a new city and starting a new life that good things will come it'll just take time it's like really excited to think about all that's come A Beautiful Day TR I remember this is my signature salad It's Your Spinach chopped up almonds chopped up parmesan and a whole lot of lemon and it's so good I a lot of made a comment earlier she was like just two single girls cooking dinner together and I was like you know what screw that we're just two human beings having a lovely evening and it doesn't matter if it's like oh this is my single girl dinner or not it's like no I'm having a great time making this dinner I will say though in general it is much more fun cooking for two and with somebody else is looking really freaking Sal is so good we got lemon oil salt pepper garlic powder and red chili peppers good right my favorite so excited that Sage is here it's very grounding yeah and it's like pulling me up my like little pering and it's fun to see her like eyes to the city again it like re excites me today I was like Elena I went to the laundry M for the first time any this smells great so I came do the gym the I know I'll feel better if I go and do it so this wasn't my question do we got to do staying out here feel like we haven't had a chitchat in a moment I've kind of been all over the place been like a little hesitant to talk about like how I'm really feeling because like for one I don't want to be a broken record but then I was thinking about it more and I was like honestly there's probably a lot of you guys experiencing this cuz I feel like some of us on here we've kind of grown up together if you've been here for a little while I lean towards being existential constantly questioning what is my purpose what is our purpose what are we here for what the hell am I doing with my life feel like people talk about postgrad a lot but I'm like what about mid 20s edging into late 20s I feel like at least with postgrad you can get away with being like they're young they don't know what they're doing and then you get to this age and I would say 99% of the friends I went to college with are married and several have babies and I did go to a religious University it's kind of part of like Christian culture and Community people just speed things up for a variety of reasons which I will not get into any who I digress but then you come over to my friends in New York and so many of them either single and they're loving it and they don't plan on getting married until they're like 35 or they're looking for somebody that's a quality partner which which the stereotypes about dating a New York are unfortunately very accurate feel like there's this pressure and maybe this is American culture I'm curious for Europeans out there if you feel this as well there's this pressure to just work and work and keep creating massive output in order to just keep up and you also are learning to maybe be gentle with yourself and you want to be soft but then at the same time you're like I want to be financially independent and stable and have money for the future so I should work hard just continuous growth like what about just being stagnant is this making any sense okay another thought I've been having is you're shedding these past identities that really formed you you know you're not who you were in high school probably not who you were in college probably hope that you've grown into somebody who's you know a more evolved human being like Life Starts to look different you have different interests and you have different energy levels and you realize you know you want to spend your time doing different things you have different values and priorities but I feel like there's a little bit of like grief for that lost self if you're meeting somebody new so like me meeting somebody new at 26 they're forming this identity of who they're obviously seeing in person who they're chatting with what they're learning about me whereas it can be a bit almost unsettling because in my head I'm like oh but I'm also this is and this because that's how people you know knew me or maybe even I found value in when I was in college or in my early 20s and you can't control people's perceptions of yourself can't see the identifying factors that you've always considered to be you but then is it really you there's no real book unless there is as I don't have any good book recommendations for these stage of life let me know let me know I think one of the things that can alleviate this is plan you know their life around either they want to live in a certain place they want to have a certain job or they have a certain partner like those are kind of the three things that dictate your next PATH and there's a lot of us floating around out here who are not sure about any of the three aforementioned topics geography if you're like I definitely want to live in this one city or town career if you're like I'm stoked on my career and I want to pursue this for the next like 5 10 years or your romantic life like you have a life partner where you're like we're in this together you kind of lean into one of those to find a little bit more more Direction but when you don't have any of the three figured out you're kind of like hello I really do love New York but I don't want to be here forever necessarily and I love YouTube but it's not a stable career I don't really know what I want to do next with it I'm not seeing anyone in the moment I think also if you're trying to figure out those kind of three areas of life or even figure out one there's a lot of decision fatigue that comes with this I'm tired of trying to figure this all out on my own so It's Tricky y'all if you're struggling with this you're a good company this is enough chatting for now tell me this I say to me of course tell me that when I go be the ghost of yours the girls in SOA Sunny Saturday so beautiful out my roommate Megan made a lovely brush and it's kind of a dream Saturday honestly everyone's in an amazing mood so good like okay New York doing it for us today love it well this for us a so be walking through doors tell me that when I die be the ghost of your