my love letter to new york city.

Dear NYC,

It was love at first sight.  I was fast approaching 18 when I came to see you for the first time.  I knew right then and there that there was no where else I wanted to be.  It took me almost 8 years to come back, but when I did, I knew it was true love.

Nearly five years have passed since I've made you my home, and although times have gotten tough, I've thought about leaving, and sometimes I wonder if I still might - I love you. You've beaten me down and helped me back up.  Taught me to love and to lose, and have been there through both.  You've comforted me, challenged me, fed me, clothed me, and helped me grow up.  You weren't the first place I've lived on my own, but everything else before this feels like another life.  There is no other place that has been able to bring out both the best and the worst in me, often all in one day.  You've taught me to be strong and independent, and to chase my dreams, but you've also taught me that its ok to fail, and to feel lost, and to cry - often on the subway, where, miraculously, no one notices, and more likely, they've all also been there.  On my lonely days, you're there for me, on days when I'm disheartened with the world, you're there to prove me wrong. You're liberal, forward thinking, passionate, feminist, diverse, ever changing, accepting, growing - teaching me that there is goodness in difference and love in diversity. You're my rock and my home.

I don't know if we'll stay together forever, but you'll always have a place in my heart.  

New York City, my true soulmate, I love you.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

xx