New York City has a way of wearing on you. You constantly have to fight for space whether it's an apartment, space on the subway, hailing a cab, a place at the bar, or a table at a restaurant. Half the time you don't even realize you are doing it, the fighting for space montra has been bread into your way of being in New York City - it's essential for survival. It gets old. The only remedy I have found for this sickness is to leave the City for an extended time so that you can remember what life is like without having to fight and claw your way through everything. Somewhere I read that living in New York City is like simulataneously being hugged and punched in the face at the same time. Lately, I feel I have experienced more of New York's boxing gloves than its gentle kisses. Fuck you too, New York!
I had a friend who described it best. New York City has a boomerang effect. People arrive wide eyed and young hoping to be the next big thing only to be met with a series of comical and at times dangerous challenges. The challenge of the fast pace of the city that doesn't stop for anyone unless you demand it to requires a certain assertiveness not found in many places in America. To the challenge of the bum on the subway platform asks you to hold something of his and then starts masterbating in front of you. The woman on the bus who shouts about losing her Costco card, how she was raped violently, and blames gentrification. The bro from Wall Street breaks your heart. The men who cat call you around the city and at times even ask for your number because "they want to text you too". The boring know-it-alls to the homeless drug addicts, to the self righteous stroller moms, to the obnoxious Bernie Bros, to the Hassidic Jews who ignore you, everything can get to be so tiresome. Most people don't have what it takes to last in the city.
Which is why, it is important to leave.
And that is where a large chunk of motivation to travel all summer comes from.
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