New York, new city

Sometimes the only way to go back from you came from is going back the same way you left it. There could have been no better way to leave Massachusetts; all the farewells came at the perfect time and they came in such order like when I said bye to my closest friends. One at a time, I hugged them and said my farewells, until there was one friend, he even came with me to the bus station. Never would I have thought I would make such incredible friends, meet such wonderful people, and live a life many thought I would not succeed with. I did it on my own! And if I can do it so can you! I still cannot believe I am going to Maui... MAUI!!!!!! The reality of it hasn't kicked in yet but maybe that's because it seems so unreal still because I met some real people in Massachusetts, you know, the kind of people who you remember and they remember you, the kind of people you had the pleasure of even meeting and getting to know a little more about each other. I am forever grateful for everyone and everything in Massachusetts, it propelled me towards where my heart is calling me now! Thank you! I will be sure to at least visit at some point.

As for right now? New York City is not New York City. I strolled into Manhattan around 2:00 am earlier today and as my cab drove uptown, I caught myself in shock over what New York City is becoming. When I left NYC, I felt as though it was going through a change, a change difficult to identify. Was it becoming New York Corporate City? Was it losing it's originality as a tough-skinned place to make it? I wasn't sure so I hoped to find out when I came back. It's still going through many changes. Overall, I do not find NYC (my hometown by the way) as it once was. Everything changes, people, places change but it's the way changes are directed that makes the outcome what it is. In short, the jury is still out on the synopsis of NYC! There were many new food shops that I saw (not healthy and definitely corporate), there were old residential buildings knocked down to bring in businesses, the regulars around my streets are gone... which is both good and bad considering I live in Harlem, but overall NYC has this change going on that well for someone who was around in the 90's and 2000's, this change seems very peculiar, very much in someone's direction, very much is being taken away from New Yorkers, real New Yorkers who've lived here their whole lives.