Taking a bite out of
Adapting to New York’s cut-throat 24-hour culture can take time, but Kiwis willing to put in effort tend to have a ball, Lorna Thornber writes.
Georgia Rippin had a bit of a rude introduction to life in New York: On her first day in the city, an elderly woman tried to push her over for walking on the ‘‘wrong’’ side of the pavement.
Shocked but undaunted, the 23-year-old Wellingtonian responded as a native New Yorker might have – she pushed back.
The New York state of mind seems to come naturally to Rippin, who moved to the city after completing the last six months of the law degree she’d begun at the University of Auckland in Mexico
City. ‘‘It’s been a smooth transition because I think I’ve always lived my life at a similar pace to what everyone calls ‘the New York hustle’. Which honestly just reminds me of a dance routine I want to learn.’’
Not one to follow conventional paths in life, Rippin didn’t study law because she wanted to become a lawyer. She did it to give her a point of difference in showbiz. And NYC, she says, is where it’s at if you want to make a career in film and television.
‘‘The funding pool is huge in the USA compared to New Zealand, and it’s where the world’s largest networks are based . . . I’ve always enjoyed working on my own projects in my downtime and trying to meet people I admire. Now I feel I have the opportunities and resources to take it to the next level.’’
City of Dreams
Frank Sinatra famously sang that if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere and a small subset of New Zealanders seem to have taken that as a personal challenge.
It’s not so much the American Dream they’re chasing as a desire to prove to themselves, those who know them – and in some cases the world – what they’re capable of. And experience life in a city that – as an art, dining, shopping and entertainment mecca constantly in search of the next big thing – hardly has time to stop for a second. Or sleep.
For those with a work-hard-playhard mindset, the Big Apple – a core centre for finance, the arts, technology and more populated by proudly tall poppies who are, or are striving to be, the best in their fields – is a natural habitat. A true land of opportunity.
Sinatra didn’t tell the whole story though. The ‘‘little town blues’’ might melt away but, for many new arrivals, the real challenges have just begun.
American hustle
Rippin believes it’s a myth that life in New York is dog-eat-dog, saying that if you’re persistent and positive, chances are you will not only survive, but thrive.
Working in film and television production development for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and on commercials and independent features, Rippin is hustling with the best of them, spending 14-hour days on set and meeting up with people in the industry she admires, hoping some of their stardust will rub off.
‘‘I’m so passionate and excited about working on set that [the long hours] don’t really matter to me.
‘‘But I try and put as much energy into creating a fun life outside of work . . . Otherwise, you’re operating from a place of no reserves and don’t have the fire to smash your career.’’
For Rippin, who shares an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen with two professional dancers, work and pleasure are often one and the same. Chipping away at projects for her production company Girls Don’t Sleep at coffee shops, attending film screenings and having dinner with ‘‘glittering friends accomplishing cool things in the film industry’’ are a few of her favourite ‘‘downtime’’ activities.
Essentially, she is living her lifelong dream, saying ‘‘I’m doing what I always wanted to do in the place I always wanted to do it’’.
She might be tempted to return to New Zealand temporarily for the right project, saying she’s keen ‘‘to make an indigenous institutional drama.
‘‘If I could return to make that, get funding and then come back, that would be perfect. Hi Taika Waititi, do you read Stuff? I have a pilot I’d love Piki Films to fund . . .’’
‘Daunted by everything’
Olivia Davison, who works as the social media manager for a small digital content agency in downtown Brooklyn, also finds it energising to be plugged into such a cultural powerhouse – but she didn’t find settling in easy.
Aged 22 when she and her best friend first arrived, Davison, who had been ‘‘feeling a bit isolated and uninspired by my career options’’ in Auckland, initially found the city ‘‘overwhelming’’.
‘‘I was daunted by everything; the buildings, the number of people, the pace of life, the attitudes . . . ’’
She couldn’t stop making (mostly unfavourable) comparisons with New Zealand, finding it ‘‘dirtier’’, ‘‘smellier’’ and more chaotic – but somehow still ‘‘amazing’’.
Reliant on limited savings until they found jobs, the pair initially shared a room ‘‘in the middle of nowhere in Brooklyn’’ with an airbed minus the air (it had an irreparable hole) and kitchen infested with ‘‘the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen’’.
If she hadn’t had her best mate by her side, Davison reckons she probably would have bailed.
Landing her current job after a month, she reached out to everyone she had even a slight connection to, joined Facebook groups to meet others and did her best to get to grips with her ‘‘crazy new surroundings’’. Two-and-a-half years later, she feels she can confidently call NYC home. Davison and her friend now share an ‘‘amazingly tiny’’ apartment with two American girls in the hipster hub of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Like Rippin, she’s excited by the opportunities to carve out her ideal career, no matter how niche, but says competition can be cut throat. To get ahead, Davison says Kiwis need to curb their tendency to downplay their skills and achievements.
‘‘You’re up against the best of the best and have to learn to talk yourself up a lot – and get used to rejection. But it is worth it. The experience you get will take you far.’’
While it’s not uncommon for many of her friends to work until 11pm and at weekends, Davison says she’s lucky she’s with a ‘‘pretty chill’’ agency which hosts soul-recharging happy hours and retreats, and