Made The Move To East Coast; Now A Future Forward Contributor

I feel the love and welcome as a the newest contributing member of The Future Forward.

For those who are unfamiliar with me, I am Waddie Grant. Currently, I live in Newark, NJ, working with the brothers of The Future Forward on building a successful network of professionals and the movers and shakers of the Black gay community. So far, I have been living in the east coast for a month, and I love living in New Jersey and enjoying New York City when I am not grinding.

Before I made the move to New Jersey, I lived in Chicago for the past eight years. During my time in Chicago, I made a splash in Chicago's Black gay/lesbian community with my event planning experience and network. I earned "socialite" status when I hosted social events for my friends and acquaintances including happy hour nights, potluck gatherings, New Year's Eve parties, celebrity club happenings, and themed events. Most notably, I hosted the widely-mentioned white parties, which has served as the highly-anticipated perennial event of Chicago Black gay/lesbian professionals. After each successive event, most particularly working with the talents of Jensen Atwood, DeMarco Majors and Jason Steed, I have always met friends and attendees with the question of when the next event will take place. Hearing those questions and similar compliments makes what I do for the community socially very rewarding.

August 2009 was the most stressful month I have endured in recent years. I needed to finalize plans for the third annual white party with Jason Steed as host. My employer recently downsized my department, and I was one of its casualties. From there, I have decided to make my move to New York City -- finally. With that plan, I had less than thirty days to make plans with moving, finalizing bills, finding residence, saying "see you later" to close friends and other stressful complications that come with moving to another state. Additionally, I had to deal with naysayers who did not envision the success I want to chase in New York City as well as people who wanted to sabotage my white party and moving details. There were moments when I wanted to scream, fight and hate the world. Ultimately, I let out a couple hours of tears two nights before I moved when the realization of all that happened and will occur have finally dawned on me. Fortunately, my best friend Lawrence helped me through that month emotionally, physically and spiritually.

On the last day of August, I moved to Newark, NJ, to realize my dream. Of course, I did not meet my plan of living in Harlem, but that will come soon. I arrived at the airports with a wide grin, huge jitters and widened eyes realizing that I will follow my aspirations of becoming a more successful blogger, writer, publicist and event promoter in the New York City area. Immediately, I have been working on those goals through networking with key individuals who have sought the right connections to patch me through. Even meeting some of my online friends and fellow bloggers with whom I have chatted and networked seemed like unwrapping Christmas gifts. During the month of September, I experienced many highs as a new resident in the east coast.

Of course, life cannot be perfect. No matter how glamorous I have painted a picture about my residence in the east coast thus far, I have met one huge obstacle. Job hunting in today's economy, especially in the greater New York City area, is one of the most challenging tasks anyone can face right now. I felt like that I made the mistake of not beginning my job search immediately after I moved right now because I am quickly spending up my saving without having any income flowing. I do not regret that decision because I have enjoyed what I called "my extended unpaid vacation." Now, that I feel a little settled, I have begun my aggressive job hunting this week. I have interviewed with three agencies and one employer. While the prospects for me are promising, I feel nervousness at high extremes by putting much pressure on myself to land a good-to-great paying job.

In the meantime, I keep busy updating the look and contents of my popular blog G-Magazine Now as well as working with my new online family at The Future Forward. I am also working on my fitness goal with my new membership at the New York Sports Club. While there are a plethora of good-looking, working-class men of all heights and sizes, the thin and fit friends I possess make me want to shed off this excess weight I have picked up since 2006. I have been brought into the fold of a popular online radio station 99.3Jamz and sealing deals on managing great talents in public speaking and acting. Very soon, I will have paying daytime office job to support all my other ventures. Then, I will find my Harlem apartment and be able to enjoy New York City the way I envisioned.

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*Does anyone know an insider to get me a great paying job as an Executive Assistant who have worked with top-tier executives?