Love at first living

Call it a culmination of good timing, fantastic people, healthy eating, sleep, exercise, being on-point and focused, or some reason completely independent of all of this, but I feel so ALIVE in this city. I sincerely love it, and sometimes (okay, most times) I can't believe I'm actually waking up every day in a bed somewhere in the middle of it all.

It's such a blessed life I'm living, and I absolutely feel at home here. I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and reflect after a busy week, and there's a groove and rhythm to this city that I've fallen easily into.

You know that fantastic feeling that you get when you meet someone new and you both mutually, silently, agree to skip over tedious small talk? You introduce yourselves and five minutes later find yourself deeply immersed in conversation about purpose and passion and how blips of your childhood have helped to shape your views. You tell each other about your grandmothers, your fears, your proudest moments - things usually reserved for those who have built up your trust over the years.

The connection is uncanny, and you wonder how you've gone so long in life without meeting someone just like this, the yin to your yang and a true reflection of the kind of person you are and kind of person you want to be.

This is how I feel about New York.

I feel comfortable with the pace of life and the people around here like I really haven't ever before. Back in L.A., I always felt as though I was having to put myself out on the line to be judged, and a lot of the people I encountered in L.A. didn't feel quite solid, if that makes any sense. So many people were floating or just hoping to get by from one deadline to the next, one exam to the next project, just doing what they could to stay afloat. A lot of the time, I felt as though I was doing that too.

Something about urban sprawl makes it so easy to lose focus of what's important - why you do the things you do - in favor of smaller, less relevant details.

But in NYC, I feel like more people live for a common purpose - to live. There's so much energy, positive energy, flowing through here that it's hard to really feel like an outsider, or to stand still for very long.

With so many people around, everyone has to be a people-person. I think that's what's such a draw for so many people to come to NYC. Here, the human condition is ever-present, the kind of personalities that collide on the streets so diverse. Regardless of what people initially came to the city for, everyone is looking to learn and grow just by being among and with so many stories and persons.

New York is the kind of place where everyone is willing to help each other out because it's understood that people are working hard just to earn their keep here, and I kind of love it.

People have been nothing but pleasant so far here. At work, there are no egos and everyone works in tandem toward deadline - it's the kind of work environment most people only dream of.

I'm never bored and there's always something to be done, but at the same time, there's no stress. I'm finding that living day-to-day is so beneficial to both health and state of mind. I've never been in a single place and met so many like-minded people all at once. Open-minded, curious, ambitious.

I miss home just a bit, but for now I'm won over by life here on the east coast. It makes me swoon, haha.

The city's like the counterpart I never thought I'd find. (: