Run This Town

I have been on this earth, in this form, for just under 28 years. And never in my life have I felt so “right where I need to be” as I have since I stepped foot in New York City. I’ve visited a lot of places, lived a lot of places, seen a lot of faces…

… sorry I couldn’t help the last bit there. A country song just started to write itself out of my head. What I was trying to say is that the travel bug bit me early. My parents have it and they passed it on before I even knew it was infecting me: swimming waves and sipping coconuts in the Virgin Islands at age three, watching the changing of the guards in London and cleaning out the trade show goods at S.I.A. in Las Vegas as a pre-teen. Domestic and abroad, my sister and I were taught to be savvy, frugal and thoughtful travelers. 

But as I am apt to do, I took the bug next level. Travel became necessary and part of my DNA. I change my “home base” every five years or so and as soon as I return to “home base” from a trip, I start planning and preparing for the next adventure. I can’t help it, it’s deep down in my soul. I crave foreign surroundings, unfamiliar and fascinating cultures, beautiful and unknown languages complete with the body language and expression that brings the words to life. I feel very alive when I don’t know what, or who, is around the next corner. 

New York City is the remedy. It’s travel in a bottle, but I can live here. It can be my “home base” and my trip. Every single day is an adventure, but I can create my routine and reality therein.

The city is indeed a melting pot. I can wander from one neighborhood to another listening to language, smelling the scents of new eats and admiring the features of faces unlike my own. Every block tells a different story.

So many individuals make their homes in New York, living their authentic lives and sharing- if even by witness- with those around them. 

When the bug starts to itch, I can just go outside, ’cause I got the remedy. I got NYC.