Mom, Dad, I know what you’re going to say but please just hear me out. I’ve thought long and hard about this and realized that there’s no other way for me to be happy. My mind’s made up. I’m dropping out of school and moving to New York City to pursue my dream of being the Mayor of New York City.
Don’t act like this is out of out of the blue. You know I’ve been dreaming about being a New York City Mayor ever since I was little. Even when everyone else my age gave up their dreams of being a mayor, I held on to mine.
And the mayor scene is great in New York. The best in the world. There are tons of small elections that are friendly to newcomers. And you really can’t walk a block or two without seeing some cool, hole-in-the-wall polling place. There’s nothing like that here, you know that. If I stay in this town, I’ll just become some wannabe-mayor that still talks about all the great elections she ran in high school. In New York, I’ll have room to grow as a mayor. Don’t you want that for me?
Please don’t cry, Mom. I promise I’ll come back and visit. It’s just that there’s no future for me in this tiny town. Anyone who means business about being the Mayor of New York has to live in New York. I have to get out there and start paying my dues.
Sure, I’ll be a dime a dozen there, one of the millions who think they can make it big in the big city by becoming its mayor. But that doesn’t intimidate me since I’m willing to work however hard I need to to stand out. I don’t see the others as competition, I see them as an opportunity to find my people and build a community. They’ll be my constituents one day so the more the better.
I know, Dad, you’ve warned me 1,000 times: for every Bill de Blasio, there are a million Sal F. Albaneses. I understand it’s not an easy dream and if I could do anything other than being mayor, I would. But it’s my calling. It’s not about the fame or glamour. It’s about the work. I could be a forgettable mayor with no pomp or circumstance and that would be just fine. Just as long as I get to be mayor.
I promise you I’m going to take this seriously. I’ve done my research and I’m being proactive. I already made these little campaign buttons with my face on them. I realize the “2021” is wishful thinking but I wanted to show you that I’m holding nothing back.
And I plan on bussing tables until I get my big break. Who knows, maybe the head of a political action committee will be at one of those tables and I’ll get discovered that way.
No, I won’t go to college. I can’t have a Plan B or else my Plan A will never work. And my Plan A is being the Mayor of NYC. Going to college would be a waste of time and money since what mayors learn in the classroom doesn’t matter. What matters is what I learn from putting myself out there and actually running for these positions. All the great mayors of New York got their starts in New York. So so will I.
Trust me: years from now, you’ll be bragging to all your friends about me. You’ll see me on the cover of The Post and tell everyone, “That’s our daughter, the Mayor of New York. A bridge is going to be named after her in Queens one day.”