I am Ann Votaw,
a Hoosier living in NYC.
I moved to New York City decades ago to be a musical theater dancer. Every time I got an injury, I got a fitness certification that corresponded to my pain and … curiosity. For 10 years, I worked with older adults in a nonprofit setting. I loved it. But it was hard and didn’t pay a lot of money.
Today, I temp in offices all across NYC, mostly in the Financial District. Office coordination speaks to my love of organizing and greeting people. Recently though, I began scratching my comedy itch and have been performing in small venues on the Lower East Side.
Sometimes, I write freelance articles for various publications, including Crain’s, Marie Claire, and Huffington Post. During the holidays, I am Mrs. Claus in various department stores and women-based retail venues.
New York City is the perfect place for Midwesterners like me who are too weird for their hometowns but too bright-eyed for Manhattan.
In Here is New York, E.B. White once wrote that New Yorkers can be divided into three categories: the commuters, the born and bred, and people raised somewhere else who are searching for something. He wrote: “Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”
I fall into the last group.
I’m in awe of the city. And I’m also aw-kward. That’s okay.