I arrived from another city eighteen months ago with fourteen years of experience and a reputation that did not travel a single mile. The community platform here imports nothing. My history exists somewhere nobody in this city reads, so as far as anyone here is concerned I have been doing this since January of last year. What did travel is the habits, which is the part that actually matters and the part nobody can verify.
Forty two, Brooklyn, dominant. Two long arrangements before the move, one of them five years.
I have found the rebuilding oddly clarifying. Nobody defers to me, nothing is assumed, and every claim I make has to be demonstrated the ordinary way. I would recommend the experience to anybody who has been comfortable somewhere too long, though I would not recommend the moving costs.
What I want is an ongoing arrangement, weekly, structured, with somebody prepared to take a person on present evidence rather than on a paper trail.
Not looking for anybody who needs a chain of vouching before agreeing to a coffee, although I understand perfectly well why people do. Not looking to be tested for six months by somebody with no intention of meeting. And not looking for a shortcut into whatever passes for the middle of this city.