Made in NYC
Was it the magic of walking in a snow story or was it the humans I chose to spend my Sunday with? I don’t know, but just when I think I’m done with New York, it seems the city is not done with me. It’s like it’s always saving me, healing me and putting me back together in the most gentle and loving way. Say what you will about the concrete jungle but it’s somehow this magical oasis that keeps on filling your cup when you run dry. The way you magically get caught in a snow storm and it just hits you. This is home. I can’t go back to who I once was. I feel so safe here, and yet I know there’s also the dichotomy of tragedies either on the Subway or in the streets, but it’s life. It’s living breathing life and if you’re in tune with it you know that this was who you were always meant to be. The lover and the fighter, the calm and the chaos. The survivor, the one that says I’m not giving up, this is not what I came here for. The one that says, get back up and try again. Keep learning, keep moving forward. Live in the present moment whatever that moment happens to be, but keep fighting, keep chasing your dreams but mostly the city has a way of telling me to keep believing. Or the way I feel like I built my community and I just know we’ll journey together. Or how the city just keeps inspiring me when I feel disconnected, it’s that magic that connects me back to that passion in my heart that lead me here in the first place. That feeling that no matter what happens I’m know I’m going to come back stronger and still keep my joy. This city is about humanity, constantly mirroring back to you the parts of you that need healing. It’s not for everyone, you either love it or you hate it. But secretly as a New Yorker, I know it’s the greatest city in the world.
Because it’s all of us, together, hoping we all make it because we know how hard it is to make it out here. As ol’ blue eyes once said, “If you can make it here you can make it anywhere”, it’s cliche and true for a reason. We want what’s true, we want what’s real, most of us anyway. We don’t have to the time for bullshit, we want authenticity. We work hard but we do play hard, whatever “play” looks like because its important to enjoy life. We do what we feel because every moment matters, since we know time is of the essence so we have to make the most of it. This city has made me my most authentic self that I never have to hide and I’m always ok to be me, that is the me that I truly love.
There’s no where else I’d rather be. I wasn’t born here and as I look back on my life and reflect on how I got here, I’m in disbelief at times. Some New Yorkers are born here, and some are made here. I don’t need 10 years for someone to tell me that I AM a New Yorker, because this was always who I was meant to be. And meeting these folks I’m honored enough to have walking right beside me, well that’s just icing on the cake.
