New York is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It's an experience, one of the most beautiful ones I've ever been lucky enough to go through. Full of odd ends, cacophonous sounds, grimy sights, and overload of senses that somehow manages to captivate and overwhelm you at the same time... and just when you think the claustrophobia is going to drive you insane, winter rolls around and Christmas lights, holiday markets, and tourists sipping hot apple cider, draws you in and makes you feel like you're living in a snow globe. And when springtime brings cherry blossoms into full bloom, you might even overlook the rats crawling around the disgusting, rickety MTA.
Honestly, it still amazes me that Times Square hasn't exploded from a huge power outage.
My time in New York was shorter than I thought it would be. In fact, I will not even have been here for a full year. I feel like I was just beginning to make my dent here, find my comfort zone, set up camp. My daily coffee at the nearby market, my weekly runs through Central Park and Riverside Park, my frequent stops to Columbia's farmer's markets, my favorite study spots around campus, the freshest deli within walking distance... barely established before I have to leave it all.
Since I first stepped foot in NYC almost 3 years ago after graduating from UCLA, I knew I would live here someday. The smells, sounds, lights, chaos, people, dynamism... unreal. I fell in love. There is literally no other city like this on the planet.
Some days when I walk around this city and look up at towering, gleaming buildings jutting against the sky and the determined, rapid strides of true New Yorkers, I feel like I've got the streets, the rhythms, the movements ingrained in my bloodstream. I was born to live here. Other times when the days are long and I'm packed in a subway train next to seemingly emotionless urban drones, I reminisce about the warm ocean breeze and laid back coffee shops in LA, and this thing I used to know called "personal space" and "people not ramming into you every 5 steps".
Next year I'll be in London. London is a city I've always loved and appreciated, but never imagined I would live in one day. New York is fast and dirty and tough and quick, with rough edges that are so familiar to me. London is a piece of delicate china, with 'look but don't touch' written all over it, ringing bells of tea time and dandys and pocket watches and finger-sandwiches. Oh and, popped collars.
When I looked into the future a few years ago, I saw skyscrapers and smog, and the Brooklyn Bridge pressed against the Manhattan skyline. I thought I would be in New York for at least the next 3 to 4 years. With that plan uprooted, now when I look into the future, I'm not really sure exactly what I see. It could be Piccadilly Circus. It could also be me eating a Bratwurst during Oktoberfest in Germany. It could be doing fieldwork in Madagascar. It could be looking over sand dunes in Morocco. It could be anything... it could be everything!
I'm not sure where I'll be 2 years from now... and 5 years from now? Unfathomable. I was recently asked that question during an interview. I was completely stumped and made something indiscernible up... I still can't recall exactly what I said, and I don't attempt to prepare an answer for that question if I ever get asked that in the future. It takes 5 years to answer a question like that!
I can make plans, set sights, settle down... but regardless, life will ignore it all and open doors to the most unlikely places. If I get too comfortable in one spot, I might just have my head buried when that doorway opens up.
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That door can lead to places I can't even imagine. It can be good, it can be bad... it will definitely be unexpected, and it may even be life changing.
And isn't that the best part?
