“A poem compresses much in 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, Here is New York
Well… it’s time. Time to say goodbye to my home for the past 10.5 years. My home where I became the person I am today. The home where I found my family of friends, found my husband, had my baby girl. This home that has been brutal and beautiful, thrilling and challenging… truly life altering.
Living in New York gives you a sense of accomplishment. I proudly say I’m from New York City and because of that fact I walk differently. Hold my head higher, a swing in my step. I just achieved my New Yorker status and with that… I’m gone.
Things come full circle in a New York life. It’s the beauty and brutal part about living here. One day I’m getting laid off, the next week I’m starting a job that’ll change my life- set it in motion towards what my life is now. One night my heart is broken over a boy, the next I’m falling in love. One best friend leaves, and the next week I start a job where I’ll meet two new best friends to add to my family. It’s the New York circus- it’s an amazing ride.
This city contains so much beauty – gritty beauty but beauty nonetheless. My fondest memories are not that of my family here, although I’m beyond grateful to have created one within these city walls. The memories I cherish are those from my first two years here. With no responsibility except to myself, I would wander the city. Wander in and out of bookstores, record stores, crossing famous bridges, drinking at the oldest of bars. The girls and I created quite a life back in our early twenties. Anything seemed possible because we had each other. We focused more on survival than wild and lofty dreams most days, but all were spent genuinely content in each other’s company and knowing that we believed all that we wished for would come true. We sought love, career excellence and above all fun. And man… does this city deliver fun. Fun in the image of girls dancing all night, watching the sunrise on a rooftop amidst the water towers, and more wandering of unexplored neighborhoods.
Bo and I both feel like we’ve reached the proverbial light at the other side of the tunnel. I feel like we actually closed the loop on every detail. Said our farewells over a good period of time. It feels like it’s actually time to leave… time to move on. As bittersweet as it feels to leave my family of friends, the city I love… it’s time to offer Landon an easier and better life that I can’t give her here. Less struggle, more family, less stress, more peace. Crying as I might be over writing this farewell, I know that I want to give her this southern life. Raise her closely to the way Bo and I were raised.
With new dreams and new hope in my heart, I say farewell. New York, I love you. Thanks for the memories.
“Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last–the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”
– E.B. White, Here is New York
xoxo,
Eloise
