New (York) Beginnings
/Oh, how I wish big for all the directions I have yet to set foot on.
“As you learn to keep going, may you also keep exploring. May you always keep discovering and trying new things even when you do not know how any of it will turn out. Because perhaps that is what this season is about: trusting in the unknown, finding gold in the little things, trading fears of what’s uncertain for freedom to thrive within it: Perhaps it is all a morning walking through a quiet forest, with eyes wide open as you stumble upon the clearing all because you chose to keep going and keep exploring.”
Wynwood Art District — Forever grateful for a city that gave me a home and for all the days spent with the 305 Family of a lifetime // Photo Credit: Shannon Cooney
I’ve made an ode to Miami playlist.
I’ve made a heading home to New York playlist.
I’ve promised the ocean I would find my way back to her as often as possible.
I’ve stepped into a new landscape of our lives that has been remolded into something with more love, understanding and intention.
I’ve shed tears and felt nostalgic and basked in excitement and belly laughed my way through these final weeks.
Long story short, I did a lot to embrace this new wave, but something still tells me even all of that won’t prepare me for a day I know is still on its way. The day when I take it all in as reality (and likely shed some more tears lol), just missing the people—my fun, loving, out-of-this-universe Miami family — and all of this sun-soaked place.
Maybe it happens in the car, maybe one night at dinner, maybe surrounded by the walls of my new home with my dog for extra moral support. Wherever and whenever it happens, I know it will. It always does.
Am I ready for it? Is anyone ever really ready?! All I do know, is that it’s all part of the bittersweet ride. A rearview mirror of impossible goodbyes catching wind of the fresh, open road ahead.
The thing about moving is that, while everything in your world begins to realign, you discover things that kept and continue to keep you grounded. I’m talking about shoe boxes full of Post-it note scribbles. Concert ticket stubs. A colorful collection of #attherat wristbands. Gameday jerseys. Polaroids. Letters penned by best friends. These are the things that make us light up when we look back and let us know that moving forward is okay.
Because realignment doesn’t necessarily mean things are off-balance. In reality, it’s more like refocusing your center. Sketching the next fork in your road. Sprouting new roots to stand back up again. Taking gracious inventory of all that got you to here — all of the people who guided, comforted and supported you along the way — while understanding that you’re simply making room to let more of the good stuff in.
I stumbled across some words in a letter a friend wrote me a few years back. In the spirit of new beginnings and gratitude, it couldn’t be more fitting to share in this moment:
“To us being full this season. I want that for all of us. Me and you though, our season is on its way. It’s one of these doors. It’s all of them. Now. Walk through. Walk through.” - SK
This is a new season. And, I’m not really sure whether it feels like the cusp of fall or the first snow of winter, the pouring rains of spring or the layers of warmth in the middle of summer. Maybe it’s all of them, bundled into one. Maybe it’s something different altogether.
Truth is, I won’t know until I’m there. But then again, do we ever know where exactly “there” is? I’m realizing that the acceptance of not knowing is the power to love life. Every perfectly imperfect bit of it.
So, I’m leaning into everything I don’t know these days and trusting in the universe to lead me where it wishes. And oh, how I wish big for all the directions I have yet to set foot on. Because the thing about moving is that you never really leave a place — the beauty in carrying a permanent key along as you close the door and step through the next, and the next, and the next. A new start. A new chapter of endless potential. A New York State of mind.
Now. Walk through. Walk through.
Sending Sunshine, “G”
memories with SOME OF THE people who made MIAMI home <3