We're all familiar with the struggles of leaving New York City. Every time you hightail it out of the city, you're reminded just how expensive, fast paced, and stressful it is here.

You're also reminded about some really excellent things in NYC when you leave, like the fact that you never, ever have to find a designated driver, and you're never, bored.

Let's talk for a second, though, about the struggles of living in NYC.

Let's talk about the struggles of affording rent every month, about the horrible feeling of seeing how high your taxes are, and about what a sad day it is when you have to buy your monthly MetroCard every month.

We love living in NYC, but we'd love it a lot more if it cost less, if there were fewer homeless people, and if you could actually afford to take a cab every once in a while.

Read on to learn about more struggles of living in NYC.

---

1. When you're on the subway and you hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to bother you, but..."

When you're on the subway, tired from a long day and just trying to get home, you know it's a terrible sign when someone stands at the end of the car and yells "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't mean to bother you, but..."

The "but," in that sentence basically means, "I'm sorry to bother you but I am going to bother you." Most likely, they want to recite the story about how they lost their job, how they're homeless, how they want your money.

[anad]

Since you hear this day after day, sometimes multiple times in one day, you couldn't possibly give up your money. You're broke as it is. Really, could we ever handle our commute home without a big steaming bowl of guilt?

---

2. Eating dollar slices constantly

We know that a couple times a week, we're supposed to haul ourselves to the grocery store and purchase raw meat, a vegetable, and a starch. 

Then, we're supposed to cook the meat, boil the pasta or potatoes, and do something to the vegetable to make it edible. However, inevitably we wind up wrecking our tiny kitchens, dirtying countless pots and pans, and all-in-all spending way more time cleaning than eating.

This all sounds like a lot of effort, and it's even more difficult when we pass several places offering up a greasy, delicious slice of pizza for just one dollar.

So, we eat dollar slices way more than we should.

---

3. Dating is a no-go

Why is dating such a struggle in this city? Shouldn't it be easier to find a suitor in a city with 8 million people?

Alas, dating seems to be much more difficult in this city than it is for everyone from our high schools who stayed in the suburbs and are happily, ruthlessly posting their relationship pictures to Facebook.

[anad2]

Here are the struggles. If we're not falling in love with someone who lives in the depths of Brooklyn while we live in the depths of Harlem, we're going out on Tinder dates with someone who looks nothing likes their pictures and spends the whole night talking about themselves and asking no questions.

Or, we're all going out and trying to find love at Pour House or Penny Farthing, and we all know that's a bust.

---

4. Public arguments

One perk of living in NYC is that it's completely chill and acceptable to go out to eat by yourself.

However, enjoying your delicious bowl of ramen in solitude is increasingly difficult when the couple next to is busy having a loud and embarrassing spat about how the guy met his ex for lunch and didn't tell his girlfriend.

Are you supposed to pretend you're invisible and that you can't hear them? Or is it okay to stare uninhibited? Eventually, you have to steal a glance. You're too curious to see what these wackos look like.

,

5. Crazy people

Here's a scenario. You're on the subway and the guy across from you is wearing an unbuttoned button down, and his stomach is hanging out. He's also chugging a can of soda.

We all know where this is headed, and sure enough, in a matter of seconds, he releases a loud, smelly burp. You spend the next several stops trying not to puke.

Then, a girl gets on the train and gently bumps him with her umbrella, and he goes off and starts screaming at her for disturbing him.

[anad]

What you really want to do is scream at him back, and say the tap on the leg with the umbrella was no where near as severe a disturbance as the smelly burp, but unfortunately you know that it's best not to engage with psycho people.

So you're left to stew in silence, and feel sympathetic for the umbrella girl in silence, too. The point is, in NYC we've got to deal with a lot more crazy people than most of us would prefer.

---

6. Rats, cockroaches, and termites

If you haven't had a bedbug infestation in the past year, odds are one of your very close friends has. Either that or you've dealt with a terrible case of lice, scabies, or maggots.

You've probably had to deal with cockroaches in your kitchen and you've probably had a rat scurry across your foot at one point or another. 

We've all become much more comfortable with the presence of rats than any of us would like. In fact, you're probably not even fazed by a rat sighting anymore.

At least we've got pizza rat to cheer us all up, right?

---

7. Being poor

This one is obvious. Everything in NYC is expensive. This is never clearer to us than when we leave the city and go out to eat and not only is our sandwich only $5, but it also comes with French fries, a pickle, and soup.

In NYC, you're lucky if your sandwich costs $10, and you'll be grateful for a pickle. French fries are usually out of the question.

[anad2]

We never have any cash, and so many places in NYC are cash only. Then, we've got to take cash out of ATMs and deal with those ATM fees.

Plus, there's never a more depressing day on any day of the month than when our rent check clears, and we check our decimated bank accounts.

'Check out 7 Struggles All New Yorkers Unfortunately Experience When They Leave NYC. 

[Feature Image Courtesy Serious Eats]