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.
For a year now, I’ve performed as a standup comic. Other times, I’m Corny Shuckins, the heartland’s favorite farm product. During the holidays, I am Mrs. Claus in various department stores and women-based retail venues.
Sometimes, I write freelance articles for various publications, including Crain’s, Marie Claire, and Huffington Post.
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.