A few years ago, when I was living in Chicago, I stopped to visit the new house I was moving into.
As soon as I got inside, I went straight to my phone and texted my friends to see if they could make it in.
One friend called, and the rest were there by the time I got to the front door.
They knew exactly where I was and were ready to help me get there.
They would take me straight to the place where I could park my car and they would go over my schedule and make sure I had everything in place.
I didn’t have to do anything at all.
I could have waited for someone to come to the house and let me know I needed to come, but I figured it would take longer.
So I got out of the car and walked down the street to my house.
At the end of the block, I got into my van and drove straight to a place that was easy to find.
As I was driving down the road, my phone rang.
It was a friend of a friend, a person who I had never met.
“Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I just got a new apartment in New York,” he said.
“It’s right across the street from your house.
I know you’ve been looking for a place, so I’m sure I can find you one.”
He was talking about a house near me.
I walked up to the apartment building and was immediately overwhelmed.
There was a new front door with a big picture of a smiling woman in a red dress on the front.
It had a sign that said “The new apartment is right across from your home.”
It was my first time visiting a new place.
The apartment was big.
I sat down in the living room with a friend and the woman said, “There are some great things about this place.”
I looked at her, she smiled, and I said, Thank you, she said, I think you should come over and meet me.
It felt like the perfect day.
As we sat down, she handed me a big, plastic-wrapped envelope with a $25 gift card and a note from my parents that read: Thank you so much for buying a house in Chicago!
Thank you for moving here.
Thank you again for coming to visit me.
Now, I know it sounds like a big thing, but you’re right, I was really surprised when I got home that evening.
I was like, “Wow, that’s crazy.”
The next morning, I took a nap and had a few drinks and breakfast, then I got up and started planning my life.
I wanted to move here, and we had a lot of friends who lived in Chicago and were all thinking the same thing: It’s just so easy to get from one place to another.
I thought I’d never see another city again.
But I got there.
I’m really glad I did.
This story originally appeared in the March issue of the New York magazine.
