The StoryCorps Mobile Tour returned to Fort Myers in February 2024 to record meaningful conversations with people right here in Southwest Florida about their lives.
Each Monday for the next several months, we’re highlighting some of the compelling stories from our fellow Southwest Florida residents.
In this installment, we hear married couple Alex Saiu and Nazma Niles reflect on how they met, graduated from college amid the Great Recession, and their decision to move from New York to Southwest Florida where they’ve built their lives and careers over the past 10 years.
TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN DAVIS, HOST: Each Monday, we're featuring conversations recorded through the StoryCorps Mobile Tour stop in Fort Myers earlier this year. Today, we hear Alex Saiu and his spouse, Nazma Niles, talk about how they first met, graduating college amid the Great Recession, and relocating from New York to Southwest Florida.
ALEX SAIU: Do you remember where we first met?
NAZMA NILES: Yeah. I remember, I just got into Stony Brook University in New York, in Long Island, and there was a student group called SJA. What was it called?
SAIU: It was the Social Justice Alliance.
NILES: Oh course! Oh my gosh.
SAIU: Our politically active days.
NILES: Yes. And I was there, and it was really exciting, and I was new on campus, and I wanted to get involved in something that would make a difference. And I met tons of wonderful people there. Among those was Alex, and when I met him, I thought he was really cute.
SAIU: When I first asked you out, we were chatting on Facebook chat, whatever it was at the time before it was Messenger. I was working the late shift at the university library at the time, and I was waiting for you to respond. You were taking a while and my supervisor at the time asked me to do something, and I kept stalling, and I kept stalling, and he was getting pissed, until finally I got the confirmation. I was like, “All right, great. Bye.” Then I did what I needed to do, but very small price to pay.
NILES: There you go. There you go.
SAIU: I remember in those days a lot, it was kind of almost like a turning point for me, because I think, you know, like a lot of people we didn't know what we were going to do with our lives after we graduated. And we graduated into the abyss of the Great Recession,
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: And I was studying anthropology, I wasn't told that maybe you should learn something more practical. We did whatever we did in those intervening years.
NILES: You're right, like, us graduating when we did; those years where the recession was happening, it lasted for a number of years. It was a difficult time to come of age and to go into a career and try to figure yourself out because, I think, we were training for a world that had drastically changed, and the expectations and everything was very different when we started to build our career and our adult life, but I'm still grateful for the journey. I think we learned a lot during that time. There were definitely some challenging times and some fun times, like, it was fun to have our first apartment together. It was just us. Our bedroom window was like five feet from the Q Train line.
SAIU: Oh, yeah,
NILES: So it rattled the windows. It was definitely an adventure.
SAIU: We were only there about a year. I don't know if you remember, it was January 2014, I had quit the job because it was just too much.
NILES: It was toxic.
SAIU: It was. It was bad, and I had suggested we moved to Florida because my family had trickled down there to the point where it was just me left. And again, we were just working wherever we could at the time.
NILES: We didn't have a lot like holding us there, yeah.
SAIU: But once I started applying down here, I started getting hits. So, shout out to the Lee County Library System. This June, I will have worked there 10 years.
NILES: Wow. I don't know why the time always surprises me.
SAIU: Do you remember the journey down there? What we did?
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: We got rid of, like, 90% of our possessions, basically just brought our clothes packed it in my old Honda and drove to Virginia. That's where the Amtrak Auto Train was. We got on, and it gets off in Sanford, Florida, outside of Orlando. And then we just drove the rest of the way to Estero.
NILES: Yeah, that was pretty amazing, like, such a slow way of traveling across the country, but we got to see some really cool sites.
SAIU: But do you remember our interactions on the train?
NILES: Oh yeah! I remember them.
SAIU: For the casual listener, if you're hearing this, I am Italian American, and my wife is Afro Caribbean, and we were sitting in the bar car, just kind of nestled against each other, watching something on my laptop, and this lady with a big southern accent approaches us with two beers. She hands us two beers, and she says, “I just think you two are so brave.”
NILES: Oh my god!
SAIU: And we're like, “thanks?” We didn't quite know what to make of it.
NILES: Right.
SAIU: We didn't want to say, “is that what she means?” But that probably was what she means.
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: But she did buy us a beer, which was nice.
NILES: I guess? I'm just like, “What is happening? Are we officially in the South now? This is out of control.”
SAIU: Yes.
NILES: So, yeah, that was interesting.
SAIU: but I felt like it was a prelude to the life that was going to greet us. It was…Not that I'm saying it was bad, I'm not, but that it was going to be interesting. That's what I'm trying to say.
NILES: And it definitely was.
SAIU: An interesting life awaited us in Florida,
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: And it certainly has been.
NILES: It's been interesting. There's been some amazing wins, but it's also been like, a big culture shock.
SAIU: I don't know if I ever told you, but, you know, sometimes I felt a lot of guilt about bringing you down here, because I know it was a big culture shock for you to go from living in diverse, hip Brooklyn to, you know, seeing Confederate flags on trucks and stuff like that.
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: So, there were times where I felt extremely guilty, but we did accomplish a lot of what we wanted to accomplish by coming down here.
NILES: It's true.
SAIU: I got to build a career in the library system here. You got your master's degree.
NILES: I got my master’s degree in clinical social work, and I'm currently working as a mental health therapist, which is amazing.
SAIU: Yes. We became homeowners.
NILES: We have an amazing little condo, beautiful view of the river. Yeah, we love it.
SAIU: How do you feel about where we are in this place and time? We've been together 15 years. We've lived here 10 years. How do you feel about our future going forward?
NILES: Oh, man, I'm excited for it. When I think about how long we've been together, like, it blows my mind, because it doesn't feel like it's been that long. I've enjoyed, obviously, spending my life with you, and all the memories we have together, and all of the challenges we face together. If there's one thing I'm appreciative of, is that we are a really good team, and that I always feel like you have my back, so I love you. So, I'm excited about the years to come and where we might live, maybe outside of the country, part of the time.
SAIU: Retire somewhere.
NILES: Yeah.
SAIU: I just want to say that I love and appreciate you, and I'm looking forward to the next 15 years.
NILES: Absolutely. All right. To the next 15 years.
DAVIS: That was Nasma Niles speaking with her spouse, Alex Saiu. Their conversation was recorded in Fort Myers through the StoryCorps Mobile Tour. This is WGCU News.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
