09 September 2015

five years.


yesterday, i turned five years a new yorker.

that eighth of september, i was fresh from college with yes on my lips. yes to life, yes to adventure, yes to a one-way ticket and a city full of strangers.

in a twist of fate, i flew the same path yesterday—south to north, over the carolinas, hugging the coast—and, for the second time on an eighth of september, i came home to new york city. 

and what a feeling, to come home. to crave travel and experience, the hum of somewhere-i've-never-been, and yet be forever anchored by a good, simple life hewn in this city i have chosen. a life rich in love and friends-become-family, coffee in the mornings and fresh flowers on the table. and music, always music.

new york is not an easy place to live. heavens, no. new york is loud and expensive, crowded and fill-in-the-blank. new york makes you work for it. some days, new york takes it all out of you. other days, new york gives it all back in spades.

and oh how it's worth it. worth it in a way that words fail. what can i really say about a place that inspires me to walk down the street just because i like the way it feels to? 

new york will always be: the place of my treehouse, park picnics in summer and long walks in fall, brunch and book club and bottomless coffee, june roses on 85th street, hours lost to bookshops, where i met him on a blind date, the best chocolate chip cookie of my life, where i learned what cold sounds like.

i set out on my own here, just me with the weight of a camera against my chest and a yearn to build a good and simple life. as the days pass through me, i'm so sure that they are all adding up to something really, really beautiful.

3 comments:

  1. what a beautiful post! Congrats to 5 years as a New Yorker :)

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  2. This is beautiful, Alexa. One day, I'll make my way up there, and you'll have to give me the tour without making me look like a tourist. :)

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  3. Beautifully, beautifully said.

    You just made me miss New York, and I STILL LIVE HERE. Good writing, miss.

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