I am perfectly content in my city. We have purchased or first home here, made friends here and have family here. Life is really great. But I have to admit that I would be a liar if I said I didn’t miss New York, if only just occasionally.
There are things that only New York can offer, like amazing education and employment opportunities, delivery EVERYTHING, world class playgrounds and an incredibly diverse culture. Life there was certainly magical and stressful at the very same time.
Strange as it seems, the things I miss about New York might not be what you’d expect. In fact, the things I miss aren’t even in the city, but instead nestled deep in the heart of Brooklyn, where the real New Yorkers live.
For instance, I miss the way the gyro truck, parked at Mcdonald and Church, smelled – like foreign spices, onions, peppers and grilled chicken. And I miss the sound the subway made as it came screeching into the station to pick me up. And I miss how even though we lived in a big city, everyone in our little grocery store knew my name. And how it’s called “food shopping” not “grocery shopping.” But mostly I miss Coney Island and all it’s dirty little secrets, the part of the F train that goes above ground, and the cool spots in Williamsburg we found to have a cold beer on warm summer nights.
New York was a great place to learn about life and what is most important, but in the end wasn’t for us. Being there, we learned so much about ourselves. We discovered, through our time spent there, that we needed more space, more freedom to get from place a to b without it taking over an hour or requiring more than one mode of transportation, more opportunities as a family and more time spent together.
That’s pretty much how we ended up here, in good ol’ Fredericksburg, Virginia.
I hold New York very near and dear to my heart and even though I can’t see us ever moving back there, I definitely look forward to returning for a visit, if only for a New York minute.
Danielle Dayney 