I'll try not to get too sentimental in reflecting on the past 8 1/2 years in NYC, though I'm pretty sure that's what blogs are for.
A lot's happened here and I've grown up, arriving as a single, wide-eyed 24 year old and leaving as an almost 33 year old with a baby and a husband who's still wide-eyed at the amazingness of the city.
Someone recently asked me, due to the baby and being at least one standard deviation above the average age of the East Village, if we were moving to the suburbs. I'm thrilled to say no - quite the opposite. We are moving abroad to spend time living in Ireland and traveling in Europe. It's the perfect time! Because it's now. The actual perfect time would've been a couple years ago, before baby, and possibly several years before then.
But despite all the truth about the madness of the city, the stress levels, the noise, the busyness of everyone around, I've found peace and calm and New York City has been central to my journey.
So my final lesson for you, lesson #69 if you're still counting, is that once there's an expiration date on something, like living in NYC, you will see it with new (sometimes teary) eyes. You will notice things like the parking garage that seems to intersect with the sky, pictured below. You'll see the nods and smiles of people who could've been friends if you stayed longer around. In turn, you'll be more likely to talk to strangers and smile at them too. What do you have to lose? Nothing now, and probably nothing back then, but it somehow feels different.
Thanks for joining me while chronicling alllll the missteps. It's time to bring my blundering ways abroad and learn new sets of rules and ways of life.
I'll miss you, NYC. Farewell for now.
*generally we say this about good things, but the mediocre and bad must also end. Thankfully, so much of my experience here in NYC has been superb, but not all of it (rat sightings and rents increases that make me blush they're so indecent). But damn, do I love it here, blemishes and all.
