For the 2+ months I haven’t blogged. Not once. And there is no excuse as the pictures piled up on my iPhone and words ran through my head. So what was going on all that time?
- I got a cold and went to bed at 9pm for a week.
- Boyfriend Billy and I had a delicious sushi dinner on the Upper West Side.
- My mom and I decorated the bunny cake for Easter.
- I traveled back to Northampton, Mass to visit my former home.
- The weather got warm.
- I planned my 25th birthday party.
- The weather got cold.
- I made friends with my co-workers.
- I finished reading No Country for Old Men.
- Some Bucknell ladies and I booked plane tickets for New Orleans.
New York finally had its first 75F degree day. The sun comes streaming through my bedroom window earlier each morning, eliciting movement and disgruntled groaning. The restaurants on 30th Avenue in Astoria are beginning to put out tables and chairs for outdoor seating. Spring feels so close I could hold it.
And with the coming season, I’m still learning the same lesson I’ve learned countless times before:
Things take time.
Accomplishing an item on my To-Do list–consolidating bank accounts, building a gym routine and planning weekly lunches–feel like mini accomplishments. I’m realizing that building a life here in New York is more challenging than traveling alone or moving to Massachusetts. What does it mean to own a New Yorker status? I’ll have to learn the subway lines without looking at a map and stretch my budget to include infinite happy hours and monthly rent. I’ll need to stop fumbling at work among experienced sales professionals and stop gazing in awe at the skyscrapers downtown. It’s been almost five months (FIVE MONTHS?!) and my daily life still feels delicate and new.
But my people are here and that had made all the difference. With help from the darling roommates, I rented a private room for my 25th birthday party (on Saturday!) and the overwhelming list of RSVP yes’s made my heart swell. Friends from college and high school are scattered throughout the boroughs and the boyfriend makes plenty of time for me despite the one hour commuting difference from Queens to Hoboken. New York has the only thing my European adventure lacked, a core group of individuals with whom I can share my highest highs and lowest lows. This place and these people had captured my heart despite the frigid winter and gnawing reality of an unknown future.
There are cherry blossoms in Newark, New Jersey.
Anything is possible.
Twelve-toed Traveler 