It’s so hard for me to believe that eight years ago today, I boarded a plane to make a life long dream come true. To live in New York City for one year. I started this little blog to document my time for friends and family to better understand what New York City life was all about and why in the world would I ever want to live here. And here I am eight years and 1,583 posts later and I’m still here.
It’s hard to even verbalize how much I’ve learned over these eight years, but I do know this. During this time I found my identity after 30 years of being in the corporate world. During this time I survived five painful years of seeing Alzheimer’s take over the mind of the man that molded me and taught me how to enjoy life to the fullest. And during this time I found my place in life.
Has living here in New York City been all roses? No, absolutely not. Not even from the moment I unlocked the door of my first apartment and found the landlord hadn’t even cleaned up from the previous tenant. Throughout the years there have been so many times (especially those 100 degree days) I’ve become nauseated from the urine and garbage smells from the streets and subways. Those times I’ve watched roaches as big as my thumb make their way across the living room floor. Those nights when I couldn’t sleep because the woman in the apartment above stomps across the floor at all hours of the night. And during these years I’ve watched so many neighborhoods lose so much of their charm because of landlord greed.
But, there is absolutely no doubt that New York City is the greatest city in the world. I absolutely adore the city’s energy. Every single time I walk out my apartment building I feel as if I’m stepping into a movie. It’s raw, it’s exciting, it’s contagious. I love the diversity of the people in New York City. I once read a quote that just nailed it for me. “I love New York because within its borders you can travel the world.” And then there’s the convenience factor. You can get practically anything you want within a few blocks, not to mention having access to any form of entertainment imaginable.
So here I am…eight years later and 1,583 posts in my little blog. My little space where I’ll continue to document my life, my adventures, and my art.
New York is a city of daily irritations, occasional horrors, hourly tests of will and even courage, and huge dollops of pure beauty.
~Pete Hamill
(I made this image at the La Marcha de Mayo here in New York City where I marched in a peaceful protest to celebrate immigrants and the Latin/Hispanic community in the U.S. and around the world.)
