happy two years in NYC to me
a week ago today was my TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY of living in New York City. Holy cow! to commemorate this said occasion, i took an hour or so and read back through my ENTIRE blog; every post that i’ve had since i started this blog, which was, of course, when i moved to new york city. two years worth of my life documented, almost to its entirety (i sure am glad ive kept a blog - it makes remembering the memories easy)
the city has been good to me (for the most part). like any relationship that’s worth anything, we’ve had our up’s and down’s. in many ways two years seems like a short period of time, in the grand scheme of things, but it also seems a bit like an eternity. being in college feels like a different life altogether. new york city has become my life and my home. and i can finally say, after two years, that it does, indeed, feel like a home. not THE home, because i will always have many places that i consider to be home and i don’t think one place can necessarily trump another. but new york city has finally made a “place” in my heart. and one that i hope it will hold for another couple of years, at least.
the past year (my second full year in nyc) has held many different things and really became the gel that brought my city experience together. nannying for the dzina’s has been a true pleasure and has brought about much JOY in my life. i am truly thankful for their special family and the place that i now have in their lives. leading a fellowship group through my church has been another source of joy for me. i love the purpose that I’ve derived from the leadership aspect of it, and the friends I’ve made are one-of-a-kind :) friendships all around have really come together for me this year, too. I really do have some wonderful friends that feel just as close to me as my college friends do and the investments that we’ve each made into the relationships will last a lifetime. for example, my sweet friend Courtney is getting married in November and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. i am reminded, through situations like this, that new york city IS my life now. i feel like I was waiting to leave and/or trying to figure out if I was going to stay for the entire first year that I lived here. it’s finally sunk in that I am here, and i want to be here now, too!
to close, i will say that i just read through E.B. White’s Here is New York, which is a wonderful short narrative written in the summer of ‘48 about the spectacular awe of the city. nothing can describe it better and i feel like a very lucky girl to get to experience life, for two years now, in the greatest city on earth.
a poem compresses much into a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. the city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. the island of manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive. - E.B. White
[New York] can destroy an individual or it can fulfill him, depending on a good deal of luck. no one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky. -E.B. White
