It's been 15 years that I moved to NYC. Up until year 10, I wrote about what it meant to be a New Yorker, every year. I was going through my phone earlier this month, looking for a picture that would capture what this move meant for me, I couldn't find one that I liked. Then by happenstance, I walked past this truck. I left a very full life in San Francisco 15 years ago and hit restart in NYC on March 7th, 2011. I never looked back. I would not say I was reborn or that I was on a trajectory of having to reinvent myself. I will say, that unlike my time in SF, I took my coat off and stayed. I never fully cottoned to San Francisco. I loved my many, many years in California, but there was always an element of it feeling foreign, distant, disconnected. It brought me love and heartbreak in equal measure, community and friendships that live in the very marrow of my bones, professional achievements and challenges that shaped my career choices. There are things I will always miss about San Francisco: the immediate access to beaches and oceans, the smell of orange blossoms in late winter, the clanking of the streetcars, watching the fog roll in and out (long before it had a name), swimming 365 days a year outside, flip flops in February, the unlimited options of letting your pup run off-leash, the incredible rush of driving a stick-shift up and down those hills and hauling out of 1st gear on the steepest inclines, hand brake and all. It's good to miss things, it makes you remember what matters. It's also good to know that you ended up the place that you were meant to be, at least for now, which feels far more certain than San Francisco ever did.
yousharknotpass
izzy806
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk