Moving Up the Northeast Corridor

I arrived in New York in August of 1994 at the gates of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  I lived in the same dormitory building for 4 years.  Leo J. Pantas Hall.  I met the woman who would become my wife there.  Amy Tomlins.  And it was there that I learned my trade.

After graduating in 1998, a couple friends and I moved into an illegal basement apartment in Woodside, Queens.  It wasn’t the best place to live, but everything in it was new, so it wasn’t the worst either.  I bided my time there while Amy continued her education at Pratt.  After two years of roommates coming and going, Amy moved into the place after she graduated.

Two and half years later, she decided we needed to move and so we did.  To Astoria, Queens.  It was a great neighborhood, a decent apartment and we were pretty happy there.  Eventually, after five years, it became obvious that we’d outgrown that single bedroom apartment and moved yet again to Jackson Heights, Queens, where we reside today.

I have lived in New York for over 16 years now.  It is a city I love.  It is a city I hate.  But it was in this city that I went from being a wide-eyed, immature student to a full-fledged, card-carrying adult.  It is where I met my wife.  It is where I met so many of my friends.  It is where my career began.  And so I have mixed feelings about leaving.

My wife has been offered a job that she simply cannot resist, and given the combination of the timing, the quality of the offer, and the portability of my own profession, we decided it was time to make the move.  And so we move to Boston.

While I am very excited for this, I am also a little sad.  New York has meant so much to my life (whether I like it or not), and it has helped make me what I am.  I have seen heartbreak here.  I have seen despair.  But I have also seen triumph and hope and joy.  New York is a magnificent city, and while I dislike so many aspects of day-to-day life here, I will always have a great deal of affection for it.

Now, Amy and I will travel further up the Northeast Corridor.  We will find a new place to call home.  We will find happiness there.  And for the first time in my life, the possibility of change has me bursting at the seams, excited to see what our future may bring!