Why I left New York
I have to say in hind sight that I now see there are many reasons to leave a place you absolutely adore.
Before I ever went there, there came a time when I had enough of Minnesota. Booking seemed to be one endless request to which the answer was "No". I took almost 10 years to leave my hometown of Minneapolis, MN. By the time I finally got my poop in a group, I practically ran screaming from the Midwest.
When I arrived on the planet NY, I was very green and was instructed by my newest friend (a native Manhattanite) to keep to myself and stop being so friendly. I didn't listen.
New York life for this somewhat naive sensitive child was at first akin to moving to Mars. Public transportation was a fulltime job in itself, and safety was constantly questioned. But soon I found my inner New Yorker and started toughening up considerably. Performing jobs as always were not easy to get, but soon I got the knack of it, and they poured in like tiny tributaries.
I had always been a hustler when it came to getting work, and enhanced my skills ten fold. I actually began to feel "Cool". After 6 years living in a NY neighborhood that was slowly sucking the life out of me, I fell in love with another Queens neighborhood. It was one that I had been visiting for it's appeal the entire time. I became a resident of Howard Beach.
It still isn't something I can put my finger on. Lord knows I tried to blend with my environment, but what I learned from walking down those beautiful clean streets and going to that fancy gym is the only way you can be LIKE a Sicilian is to BE one.
Then all of these extremely entertaining scenarios came to a painfully screaming halt. Dad got sick. Not sick like all the other minor things like quadruple bypass and congestive heart failure, but this time dire.
All the culture and entertainment in the world can't measure up to the thought of losing one of your all-time favorite people for good.
Thanksgiving 2006 I took a plane to tell Dad in the hospital that I was coming home. Nothing else mattered as much.
December 2006 Dad passed.
I have never regretted my decision to move home to Minnesota, and I never will. When I stand looking out my front door with outstretched arms, the fingers on my left hand nearly touch my Sister, and the right, my Mother.
Don't get me wrong - I have missed New York on a regular basis ever since I made that choice, but the sting is slowly fading. Minnesota is amazing in many ways, and I'm going to find all the ways I never noticed before.