Monday, May 10, 2021

Welcome to My Half Life


Today, May 10, 2021, is a unique day in my life. Yesterday, I had spent the majority of my life in New York, and tomorrow I will have spent the majority of my life in Arizona. That means that today will be the only day in my existence when I can legitimately say I am half New Yorker, half Arizonan.

Yes, it’s true. It was 25 years, 9 months, and 28 days ago that I officially became an Arizona resident. And it was 25 years, 9 months, and 28 days before that, that I came flying out of my momma’s womb and landed in Brooklyn, New York. I am at a chronological crossroads in which I am a perfect geographical hybrid. What does it all mean?

New York is my heritage, my roots, the first half of my journey. It is my family, my lifelong friends, my schooling, my coming of age. It is where I learned what pizza is supposed to taste like, and how to build a snowman, and how to write like a Madman. It is cockroaches, and muggers, and gridlock traffic. It is clubbing until 4 a.m., and movie theaters within walking distance, and bagels and the New York Times on Sunday mornings. It was all of these things for the first 25 years, 9 months, and 28 days of my life, and yet remains all of these things – and a thousand more things—today and always in my heart, mind, and soul.

Arizona is my present, my future, the rest of my journey. It is my wife, my kids, my newfound friends, my adulthood. It is where I found my mature creative voice, performed improv and community theater, and learned how to ride a bike. It is scorpions, and dust storms, and 120-degree heat. It is ubiquitous Mexican restaurants, unparalleled scenic beauty, and Friday movie nights in front of the big screen TV with my family. It has been all of these things for the past 25 years, 9 months, and 28 days of my life, and will continue to be these things – and a thousand more things – today and always in my heart, mind, and soul.

Chronologically speaking my life is currently split in two, with one foot on each side of the continent. As of tomorrow, the calendar tilts toward the West. But the reality is that these two geographic locations, these two lives, are woven into one life—my life. The parts make up the whole, and all parts embrace my soul. I am not half New Yorker, half Arizonan. I am fully both.

 


2 comments:

  1. Whew. I did the math and realized I will not face this turning point in my life until I am 86 years old. I am still solidly a New Yorker, as I suspected.

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    1. I think if you've lived in New York for a significant portion of your life, you will always be a New Yorker on some level, no matter how many years you live somewhere else.

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