An almost Goodbye

There is nothing more romantic than a city full of life. 

Full of spirit, pride, joy and love. 

New York City has captured the essence of the greatest city in my books so far. Everything about New York is alluring, the sounds that I hear on my commute to work or to class during the weekday. The lights that are constantly on, racking up a mad electricity bill, but the lights that light up the brightest city in the world. The smells, oh I will miss the smells, well some of the smells to say the least. The smells of the cinnamon peanuts that are sold on the streets, the smells of the pizza shops and coffee shops that I crave every day and sometimes when I go back to Pittsburgh I miss the smells of the garbage piled up three feet high because Pittsburgh never has garbage piled three feet high (or higher). 

The five months that I spent in New York City were the best five months of my life. Every moment in the city I had I cherished and enjoyed to the fullest, it is what you make of the time that you have to enjoy. I am young, 20 years old to be exact and I am so lucky to have been able to spend my semester here in New York City. Unlike many others, I wish my semester would never end, yeah sure maybe I could survive without the class and homework but between my job that I loved, the friends that I made here and the wild and spontaneous life that I had, I never want it to end. 

Many of my friends back at home would ask me asking me what exactly am I doing in New York, I tell them that I am going to class taking a full 14 credit hours and interning three days a week busting my balls to get the grades and to impress and prove to my coworkers that I can survive and be successful in this industry. As most of my friends believed I just lived in New York spending thousands of dollars, going out to clubs doing absolutely nothing with my time here. Well they are half right, I do go out more than I should but I still wake up at 9am and am out of the door and on time to make it to work at 10am...sometimes extremely hungover but I deal with it. 

I kicked ass in this city. 

If anybody were to second guess me just watch me in an environment that I truly strive in. There is nothing more invigorating than to be around people who share the same interests and passions that I have. 

There are so many things that I have learned about myself in these five short months. I learned that I do not want to be a retail buyer, something that I thought I wanted to be my whole life. But that I want to be a writer, no David Sedaris or Maya Angelou, but a writer that travels all around the world to experience things that others may never be able to, I want to let them know what it is like on the other side of the fence. I want to tell people my visions and dreams and opinions through my writing  Sure they make crap money but hell when did I ever think I would get a job that I would make bank - never.(But let me remind you that this is simply a blog post and does not reflect the skills that I have, I'm writing this late at night and without my glasses on so cut me a break).

I learned that I truly work well with people, strangers or people I have known for years, I simply love socializing with others. Learned that I am really good at small talk and that it is truly necessary to have the ability to pull shit out of your ass just to spark a conversation with someone who might become a friend for a lifetime. I learned that it is sometimes better to listen than to speak. You find out a lot about people if you just listen to them, what their interests, problems, life stories, ideas versus telling them yours. Sometimes you hear something from somebody and it sparks an idea in your own head, or a cord that makes you realize that you have been doing nothing but talking your whole life and it is nice to not talk and to listen for just a moment. 

Today I went to Union Square, back to my stomping grounds. I had no plans for the day, it was one of the most gorgeous days that I have seen in the city in awhile. Got a cup of coffee and walked around for a little until I decided that all I want to do for the day is to sit on a park bench, without my earphones or my phone in my face, and just watch people. Breath in the fresh air, have the sun shining on my face, watch the others around me. New York is a busy city, sometimes there is no time to stop and smell the roses. In the five months of living here not once did I take a walk to a park and just sit alone and breath. We forget to, we get so caught up in other things and we always ask ourselves where the time went and weeks, months, years roll bye and we ask ourselves what did we do? We can't remember because we didn't step back and evaluate what we did. That is exactly what I did today. I took a moment to look back and think about what I have done while I have stayed in this marvelous city. I learned that I have done so many amazing things, met so many amazing people and made connections that I will have for the rest of my life. 

This surly is not the most 'fashionable' blog post I have ever done. But it probably is the most heartfelt one I have written. 

There is not one thing that I have done in this city that I regret doing, or not doing. This is not a goodbye, this is a 'I will see you later'. 

In a few short days I will be heading to Florence, Italy to continue my schooling and traveling and spending money that I don't have for the remaining five months of the semester. Not quite sure what trouble I can cause over there. Frolic in fields of lavender, champagne toasts onto of a mountain somewhere in Greece (maybe), spending my mornings waking up watching the sun rise on this side of the world and before bed watching it set and the stars to come out and the moon to take the suns place, letting it sleep just like everybody else. It was a wild ride New York, it sure as hell was one wild ride.  

xx