Bay Area actor Eli Diamond continues his chronicle of his first year at NYU…
Leaving is always a hard thing to do.
It’s even harder when your flight gets canceled.
The day before I was supposed to leave, I said a warm, heartfelt goodbye to the most important people in my life. Unfortunately, the next day, my plane was canceled, leaving me with the most awkward of awkward days. That day was spent doing the one thing I was not expecting to do: hang out with my parents. Honestly, it was a much nicer time than I had expected, especially as I had ignored my parents most of the summer to hang out with my friends. We ate lunch together, watched television, and did all the things I was usually too busy to do. A few days later, after finally landing in New York, I finally said good-bye to them as I moved into my dorm.
Moving into my dorm was a relatively painless process, despite having 3 suitcases, two bags, and a microwave to carry up three flights of stairs. All in all, it took about a half-hour to move everything in, and another half-hour to unpack. My roommates all proved themselves to be incredibly nice people. One of them, Nathan, has helped me numerous times already on all sorts of fronts; unpacking, taking care of a few friends, waking up in time for orientation.
Orientation was, for lack of a better word, completely pointless. I wish I could lie and say I was thoroughly captivated and entertained, but instead, I was the guy sleeping with his head on a friend’s shoulder, constantly looking down at my phone to see if I had received any new texts. We tried to talk about an unappealing book, The Tiger’s Wife, but it got too dull for my group to even say anything. It was just a bunch of us, sitting in silence, checking our phones. However, during that meeting, I did make another good friend.
Actually, making friends has been surprisingly easy since coming to NYU. It seems that wherever I go, there are people willing to hang out. For example, last night, I hung out with my roommates for a bit, then I went across the hall and hung out with four people over there, only to have a couple of guys knock on their door and invite me to a Breaking Bad marathon a couple of doors over. Even today, while I was heading to lunch on my own, a couple of people who I never met before introduced themselves to me and invited me to sit at their table. So, even though I miss everyone from San Francisco (i.e. my parents, my girlfriend, my old high school compadres), it’s been wonderful to meet all these people.
Now, I just have to wait a week for class to begin. Tuesday, Sept. 4th cannot come soon enough.
Check in every other Friday to see how the prodigal son navigates his first year as a theater student.
San Francisco Theater Pub 