Leaving Mexico City, the place I grew up, wasn’t impulsive. It was calculated — shaped by ambition and the stubborn belief that opportunity still lives somewhere else.
I headed to New York City in 2020, hoping to prove myself on what I thought was the world’s biggest stage. I enrolled in law school, eager to work hard and prove myself.
The city would eventually demand everything from me, relentlessly, until my life was no longer about ambition but survival.
I eventually left New York City two years later, learning a lot about ambition and the true cost of the American dream.
Growing up in Mexico City meant learning what not to talk about
I was born and raised in Mexico City. It was the only home I’d ever known, which made leaving both harder and more necessary than I expected. Mexico City gave me everything: a vibrant social life, deep friendships, culture that felt alive in every neighborhood, and food that made you want to stay at the table for hours. My days were rich with spontaneity. My nights felt endless in the best way.
Growing up there also meant learning to coexist with things that slowly wear you down. News alerts about violence became routine. Conversations casually referenced kidnappings the way others might discuss traffic. Certain neighborhoods, roads, or situations were simply off-limits. Everyone knew it, and no one questioned it.
Over time, crime made my future feel fragile. When you’re born somewhere, you learn to accept these things as normal. But that doesn’t mean they don’t accumulate. I didn’t want to build a life that depended on constantly calculating risk.
At the same time, I felt pulled toward something else entirely. The American dream may be bruised and unevenly distributed, but it still exerts a gravitational force. New York represented access to industries, ambition, and reinvention. I wanted to test myself somewhere the ceiling felt higher, even if the floor was harder.
New York was everything I expected, which was the problem
I moved to Manhattan at the end of 2020. Despite the pandemic, my experience wasn’t diminished. I watched the city come back to life at full speed.
New York was exactly as advertised: expensive, intense, chaotic, and unapologetically demanding. It rewarded momentum and punished hesitation. Everything required effort: finding housing, building community, maintaining balance.
At first, I embraced the intensity. I worked constantly, studied late into the night, stayed busy, and told myself exhaustion was proof I was doing something right. But New York normalizes extremes. Long hours become the baseline. Hustle becomes identity. Rest starts to feel indulgent.
What made New York thrilling in the short term felt unsustainable when I imagined it as permanent. The social life, the hustle culture, the constant stimulation — all of it left little room for pause.
Staying long-term meant accepting a life where I had to keep my foot on the gas pedal.
The real transformation was realizing what I actually needed
New York forced me to confront my relationship with ambition, productivity, and self-worth. It taught me discipline and precision. It also clarified my limits. I learned that opportunity without sustainability eventually becomes a trap, not a privilege.
I understood exactly what the city offered: access, intensity, momentum. I also understood exactly what New York and the American dream demanded in return: everything.
I knew then I didn’t want to build a life that required me to be “on” constantly. I started prioritizing myself and my core convictions, love, relationships, and sustainability. That change would eventually take me out of New York City and into another global hub: London.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post I left my home in Mexico City to chase the American dream in New York City. The demanding hustle culture was unsustainable. appeared first on Business Insider.
