Distrito Paparacchi - Summer Streets
It's been a long lasting love / hate relationship with the city I call home. Maybe I even romanticize the idea of putting all my things in boxes and vagabonding to my next destination. I think to myself, maybe some where with cleaner air next, or some where you aren't squished like a sardine on the morning commute. But the more and more I mature, the more I get this stirring sensation of needing to define and find the term "home". Should it be defined solely by the people I spend my time around, the building I live in, the city that that building is in? Is there ever a perfect situation in which all of these elements perfectly commune with one another. I don't know, but I am definitely trying to find out.
I was talking to a friend with a similar wanderlust as I. With recent excursions to Montreal, and Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico - I could feel a distinct longing in my heart taking the recollections in. What's amazing is they totally understand the itch to leave the city we are in now for somewhere else. "All the time." But to them, what's amazing about New York, is you begin to miss it - and that's how you know. And I did miss it. When I was walking along the beach in San Diego and up the hills of San Francisco, I distinctly felt so far away from home - the building, the city, and the people I love. Beautiful, without a doubt, but home, well...no. Traveling definitely was healing. I've gained inches more of clarity of what I want out of life, the people I want there, and all the new experiences I must take on the duty of opening my soul to.
So - this summer - I decided to take the act of falling in love with New York City into my own hands. Just like any healthy relationship it takes work, cultivation, and will power. So cultivate I did - riding down water slides off Wall Street, ziplining through midtown, bicycling down Park Ave and through central park, going to Broadway shows, visiting free outdoor fairs, saying yes to hanging out with new people, and getting a taste for New York City hospitality. And I hope all these actions, good in and of themselves, hopes open my heart to the universe. Tells her how ready I am for everything coming my way. And shares a gratitude that I am so, so overdue to give.
I love you New York, home now, and however long, but let's be real - you'll be home forever.