The art of grit and posh. It all intersects here.
Ah, the city that never sleeps.
And indeed it doesn’t.
I have many deep ties to this city. It’s the first place I felt grown up, walking around alone and without fear. The hustle and bustle, you’re never alone, it’s never a quiet moment.
I’ve had some of my most defining moments in this city, growing up, getting clear, coming clean.
Metamorphosis occurred in so many different ways.
Apart from the cities I’ve lived in, New York is the city I’ve spent the most time in, the one I’ve visited most often.
Whole chunks of my heart live in that city.
I had a particularly interesting day there last summer, one of the most defining days of my life. It’s worth a deep exploration, so I’ll save the details for now, but it suffices to say that hot, tragically beautiful day I spent in Brooklyn changed my life.
I’ve never seen the good and the bad, the most constructive and destructive of humanity in one place happening at the same exact time.
I left sad and shaken and full of love and joy. I experienced terror and compassion at the same moment. I questioned what it meant to be human and have a shared experience. Those moments on the pavement, those hours in the garden, they change my world forever - just as that city does each time I visit her.
It truly is the best and brightest and the most desperate and darkest of what it is to be human all wrapped up in a heaping pile of hot garbage and sparkling wine.
I sat on the cushion most earnestly in those days that summer, and it broke my heart open. New York gave me a piece of myself I couldn’t find anywhere else. And while it would be a challenge difficult to accept to live amidst the chaos, I’m grateful it’s there to go see every time I need to feel a little more alive.
I love you, New York.
I’ll see you soon.
Love,
Nat