I've discovered it is important to take the opportunity to love the places you spend the most time in. It just adds to your overall happiness, automatically worth it.
I’ve never dealt well with change. I had my mom walk me to my locker the first weeks of middle school. I cried the first days of high school. I toughened up (a little bit) when I started community college. I didn’t need my mom to walk me to my classes and I didn’t cry. I was doing good. &then she told me we were moving... to Redwood City. About a 20 minute drive from San Mateo, not a big deal. A normal, well-adjusted human could have handled this without a worry. I, on the other hand, could not get used to my new life in Redwood City. I remember making my mom drive past the Trader Joe’s close to our house, and take me to the one in my old hood. I would tell people I “only slept” in Redwood City but I lived in San Mateo. I still went to school there, worked there, and all my friends were there.
I eventually came around, started to actually like Redwood City, and even claimed it as my place of residency. I love my little Audrey Hepburn inspired room and I can spend hours on my triple-mattress high bed. I (used to, before I became a lazy sack..) walk up the hill by my house and revel in the beauty of the neighborhood. I’m a frequent at the coffee shop down the street. I’ve transferred pharmacies and don’t dread spending time in our local Trader Joe’s. I’ve accepted my happy life in Redwood City, home.
But now I’m spending more time even farther down south, San Jose. I go to school there. (I did cry on my first day at State but because I couldn’t find the shuttle stop, not because I couldn’t adjust!) My boyfriend and some friends live down there. My internship is located in the sunny southern city. As mentioned in previous posts, in an effort to justify my lack of physical movement this semester, I walk to my internship from SJSU. Twice a week I walk through the streets of San Jose. I walk by the homeless people on the corner and behind the busy men and women in their fancy work clothes. I know the oneway streets and J walk when I’m late (everyday). I run across the Light-rail tracks and know where my bank’s ATM is located. I get a rush on the streets on San Jose that I’ve only felt in New York City.
I visited the Big Apple for the first time when I was 18 and I fell in-love. I wanted to live there. I had to live there one day! I’ll never forget my first experience in New York. I won’t forget my pulse quickening as I stepped off the airport shuttle onto 5th Avenue or the little girl excitement that overcame me as I walked through Central Park. I won’t forget the simple moment when I spilt a scone and coffee with one of my best friends, and favorite travel buddy, in Greenwich, or the delicious cupcakes we had in a park. Food tasted better there. Life moved at the pace I wanted it to. I was addicted. I had to come back...
And then I did, a few weekends ago, and my dire obsession with moving to New York had faded. The city was fun, but it wasn’t my city. The city didn’t offer me the same life shattering thrills as it had 4 years earlier. The city was the same, but I had changed.
I still love New York and will continue to visit. I’ll treasure and rave about my traveling days to city that never sleeps but in the end, I want to sleep and live in my cities. My Redwood City and my San Jose. I’ve grown to love these places.
&Maybe I would grow to love New York City one day too, but I havne’t grown to adapt yet... so for now, San Jose is my new Big Apple.
Stay tuned.. -a.
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