Have you lived in New York CIty, and then left?

I moved to nyc after college, lived there for 4 years, and moved away to go to grad school. I miss it every day and will hopefully be back there soon… but life is hard to plan. I don’t know if I learned anything particularly life-changing, but here are a couple of little things:

1. the difference between being “polite” and being “friendly” (in nyc less of the former and more of the latter
2. how to monitor all the people around you without looking at them
3. how to be comfortable in a crowd and be one with noise

SHHHHHH! They think the world revolves around THEM!

I moved to NYC for my freshman year of college and lived there for a year. I transferred to do my undergraduate work in Seattle (where I am now), but (like rss) I miss it every day of my life! I left New York because the college that I was at was not the best fit for me, but also because, after living there for a year, I knew that I’d want to live there the rest of my life. I thought I’d try out a different part of the country before settling down in New York for the long term.

What did living in NYC teach me? Everything! Maybe that was just because it was my freshman year of college, a year when most people change a ton as they try to figure out who they are outside of the confines of their parents’ way of life. But NYC is the reason that I am who I am today. It is the reason that I have the passions I have. It is the reason that I live my life the way that I do.

This probably sounds crazy, but I’ve done a lot of reflecting on why New York has come to mean so much to me/why I am so drawn to it. Ultimately, I think it comes down to the intentionality of the city. You’d be hard pressed to think of another place in the whole world where the inhabitants are so intentional. Everyone who is there is absolutely there for a reason. Rarely do people just end up in NYC. It’s a place for the driven, it’s a place for those seeking refuge, it’s a place for the artists, it’s a place for inspiration, and it’s a place where people come to find something. Literally, anything is possible there. You see things on the streets everyday that you could’ve never dreamt up.

So, in short, NYC taught me the joy of living. That sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s true.

What are you, rss, lurveproof? I clicked on GA three different times, and nothing happened! Consider yourself lurved, even if I can’t make the computer do what I want it too.

jjd2006 was willing to take some lurve. Go figure!

I’ll try again after writing this.

I gave em lurve for ya daloon.

thanks for the lurve and effort, guys! being un-lurvable would be sad indeed :(