If you missed Part 1, read it right here.
Why am I in New York? What did I come finding here? Today I’ll tell you about all the five lucky wishes my New York fairies granted me… and if it sounds too good to be true, wait to read part 3 next week ;)
✨ The wish for challenge & growth ✨
Shanghai and New York are cities so alive, so different, so intense in so many ways that they are going to disrupt your life forever, whether you are ready for it or not. They will shape you strongly, quickly, deeply, because the only way to make it through is to adapt and fast. That’s what I loved about Shanghai, and that’s what I came to find in New York.
Since I arrived, everyday in the city has felt like a huge kick in my limits. I keep stretching myself to new realities, to new possibilities. I see my mind getting expanded by what I catch on the streets, on the subway, in museums, in shops, in restaurants. An overwhelming integration of constant new information. I am becoming a learning sponge, and the newness of it all is scary, exhausting and exhilarating.
I feel like a kid having his legs aching at night as he is growing taller and taller. That’s what a new environment like New York does to you: painfully and abruptly making you grow into the new person you’re going to become.
✨ The wish to live in ‘The Place To Be’ ✨
Let me explain you what ‘The Place To Be’ means to me:
-A place where the society new trends emerge, where the future takes roots before spreading to the world. I now see daily with my bare eyes societal evolutions I had only observed in the medias up until I arrived in New York. For a progressive person like me, it feels inspiring, reassuring, and hopeful. And I want to be a part of it.
-A place that gathers so much diversity, so many talents and stories from all over the world, so many dreamers and doers, that it vibrates at an higher frequency, and that anything does feel possible. It creates a freedom to just be and become without any judgement nor limits, maybe like no other places in the world.
-A place where the idea of a dull day doesn’t exist, where culture and entertainment are at the centre of life. In just a few months in New York, here is how I spent my free time: Wong Kar-wai movie screening at the park, David Sedaris live reading event, a Candlelight concert tribute to Hans Zimmer, a manhattanhenge chase, an impromptu omakase dinner, a Moth storytelling evening, Edward Hopper exhibition... there are activities, restaurants, art for every taste in this city; so much to do, so much fun to have.
✨ The wish for connection ✨
Holidays in China were a hard sale to friends and family, very few of them visited me during the twelve years I was living in Shanghai. With New York, it’s the exact opposite, it doesn’t take any convincing, the city in itself does the job!
It is now an immense pleasure to welcome my loved ones here and share bits of my life with them. To catch up with lost friends visiting the city. To reunite with some of my Shanghai pengyou who also moved in New York. I even found back my beloved cousin I hadn’t seen in eight years, we now live twenty minutes from each other!
I’m happy I escaped my Shanghai bubble, it felt lonely at times. Loneliness is not really a part of my life anymore, I can turn that page of my story.
✨ The wish for an artistic level up ✨
When we say ‘sky is the limit’, in reality our environment subconsciously sets some of these limits. And as a very sensitive being, I’m impacted even more by my surrounding, the place and the people in it. Knowing this, I had the gut feeling that New York would be the right city to nurture, stimulate and inspire my artist big dreams.
Being an artist in a city of artists brings me a sense of possibility stronger than anywhere else, helping me to hold on to my vision. Many of the humans that inspire me the most live or have lived in New York; my favorite artists and creators from all over the world come here every year to exhibit their art and connect with their communities. I can meet some of them, pass them by on the streets, walk in the steps of others, and it gives me a path to follow. Seeing these inspiring lives and their art with my own eyes makes my blurry irrational dream becomes more of an achievable objective.
And finally, living a few subway stops away from some of the best museums in the world is an immense privilege I will largely enjoy. Spending hours gazing at the great masters’ paintings will be my own real life art school.
✨ The wish to discover the world ✨
Living in China for over a decade offered me the chance to travel all over Asia. In my twenties, I would always prefer to discover a new Asian country than to go back home in France for the holidays. Shanghai was a central home base located just a quick flight (or 2!) away from wonderful places such as Tokyo, Bangkok, Hanoi or even Bali.
But, after so many years based in Asia, I started thinking that the world was a bigger place and that I was missing out on more exploration, on more adventures. I had never really travelled through America, North, Central and South. And I truly couldn’t wait.
Surprise cherry on the cake: my best friend just decided to move to Mexico City in the fall, reuniting us on the same continent again, only a 5 hour flight away from each other! I’m now, not so secretly, dreaming of our future home swaps and travels together.
To finish for today on this happy note, here is travel wishlist, while based in New York: journey to Western Colorado and New Mexico (with a visit to Georgia O'Keeffe’s home of course), high way 1 road trip with camping in Big Sur, trek on the Inca trail in Peru, on the Patagonia circuit trail, and around the Lake Atitlán in Guatemala…!
May the city keep on giving & may these early wishes come true!
Next week in part 3… the yet-to-fulfill wishes and the cultural shocks!
Have a beautiful Sunday,
Laure-Anne
Bravo Laure Anne, une fois de plus je marche dans tes pas .. en te lisant. Bravo, et suis contente que ta best friend soit près de
Toi..