Anthony Flint on Jane Jacobs' First Years in NY (link)
Within weeks of arriving, Jane realized that breaking into journalism was going to take time and that, in the meantime, she’d need to support herself. She began poring over employment agency listings looking for any clerical position she could find, and soon settled into a routine. Each morning she would walk from her apartment building, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and into lower Manhattan, where most of her interviews took place. The rest of her day would be spent exploring the city; she would invest a nickel for a subway ride and get out at random stops. She had been to New York only once before, as a girl of twelve, and now, at eighteen, she was drinking in the sights and sounds of a metropolis that could not be more different from Scranton.
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As excited as they were to be there, money was tight. After paying the rent, Jane and Betty had so little to spare that they resorted to mixing Pablum, a nutritious but notably bland cereal for infants, with milk for sustenance.
What must be done, must be done. Living like this doable at any age, at any time, as long as you’re getting enough sustenance from creating what you need to create. The key of course is to keep on doing. Keep on producing and pushing oneself beyond what was done yesterday. You have to be very suspicious of the meta-reflection that can come. Am I doing the right thing? If you think you’re not, then work at something else for awhile. Just go and do it and see if it’s what you like. Anything else is a waste of time.
Posted 2 years ago
