I am deliciously in love. And while I'd like to tell you that the victim is either Tom Hardy, Javier Bardem, or my old flame by the name of Jack Daniels, I have to confess that this time it is even a less-likelier candidate than the latter. The name? New York City.
With my 1-year NYC anniversary recently celebrated, and with a fast-approaching Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought it beautifully appropriate to pause and reflect on this city who has so simultaneously viciously and tenderly grabbed hold of me.
While some of you out there may be celebrating this upcoming "lover's" holiday with romantic intent, let me remind you that the wonderful thing about love is that it can come in numerous shapes and forms. For me, it comes in the unexpected form of a marvelous, gregarious, ballsy city, and isn't that how we stumble into love anyway? Surprised, baffled, unprepared, definitely unqualified, but nonetheless forever changed.
This city has changed me, seen the best of me, and absolutely witnessed the worst of me. Isn't that what a good relationship is? Someone who will accept you as you were, as you are, and as you intend to be. Someone who allows you to be vulnerable, afraid, sometimes strong and sometimes not.
I've been tired, exhausted, and down-right spent and you know what I've learned? That it's okay. In "the city that doesn't sleep", there's no guarantee. It's a city that seems to scream, "NOT TOMORROW, NOT LATER, BUT NOW, NOW, NOW!!!" You will be pushed, challenged, made to feel totally uncomfortable, but that's exactly what I need/want in a partner: Someone who will unapologetically demand that I grow, that I forget everything I think I know about my "limitations", and that I finally, finally begin the process of living life by my own definition.
And so I leave you with a quote by the author, poet, dreamer Daphne Rose Kingma because I'm eager to write Part II of this soon,
"What do you need? Who do you need to ask for exactly the piece of love you need right now? And do you have the guts, vulnerability and humility to reach out and ask for it?"
With New York, I've asked and was given in a way I could not have imagined. Thank you. New York, I <3 you.