I never thought I wanted to live in a big city. Come to think of it, I never gave much thought to where I’d even want to live after college. Not that it wasn’t important, but because I never thought of just how many options. My senior year of college I was much more focused on types of jobs than cities. Anything other than Southern cities like Nashville, Birmingham and Atlanta never even crossed my mind.
My unexpected journey has been pretty amazing. Along the way, I’ve had the chance to live in Madrid, Miami, Washington DC and New York City. Not bad for a girl who never planned on leaving the south, right? I always knew though that as much as I love it, living in Manhattan wasn’t something I wanted to do once we started a family. Enter Q!
A few weeks ago, this small square tile I’ve had in every one of my NYC apartments broke. Every night, T leaves one of the doors to our kitchen pulled back slightly, so if someone ever were to break in that we would hear the doors collide. One morning he came in and the tile was on the floor, broken. We have no idea how or why it happened, but the fact that it happened now seems ominous in a way, as like the universe knew what was on the horizon for us.
I’m okay with leaving. I’ve been so sad every day I’ve looked out our apartment window at our fantastic view, but I am ready. I’ve definitely made the most of my time here. Back in the day, I remember staying out all night the night Obama was elected, high fiving and being hoisted up on someone’s back cheering along Sixth Avenue. Man, was the city electric. I remember once going on two dates on one night, because I didn’t want to let a good Thursday night go to waste.
I’ve also had my share of those NYC experiences everyone has one of and hopes to never experience again. I’ve been chased more times than I can recall – once I remember being on 14th Street with me in heels after the Madonna at Yankee Stadium concert. Another dressed as Pebbles during Halloween. I had one scary experience that made me had to move from Brooklyn to Manhattan I feel like making it almost 10 years through all that and ending up safe is quite a win
And now, we are off. Everything is packed and headed to storage as we finish up what’s hopefully the last stages of our first real home together. Eventually there will be a yard for Dixie, our dog, to run around in. Space for Quinn to start crawling around without running into something. Room for us to cook and entertain like we’ve always wanted. Yes, it took some years for us to get here, but we are ready.
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