Within a couple months, I’ll be leaving NYC for the medium term future. As part of preparations, I’m putting together a NYC bucketlist – hopefully I’ll be able to cross off a few items. Reflecting on my time in this city, I realize that an abundance of memory-building experiences have all fogged together in my mind. As an an impressionable college-grad, I found the city brimming with new and exciting experiences. Now, I have difficulty picking out the memories unless they’re anchored by people or time. Photos and past journal entries help, but inevitably there are gaps. I think comes part and parcel with how quickly I became jaded of the city. Exploring NYC would take several lifetimes and unfortunately, taking a “weekend sampler” approach results in an eclectic but thematically unrelated mixed bag of memories. Unless intentionally memory cataloged, these experiences get phased out by next week’s installment of the experience train. Every millennial yuppie coming to the city goes through this process – the duration is largely limited by one’s ability to continually live in the moment.

Given the current Corona environment, I regret not being able to experience NYC as a “local tourist.” It’s so different to explore the city during the workweek and see an entirely different cast of locals. So much of our relationships with the city is colored by our job – it’s refreshing to put that aside and remember the city is more than a weekend concrete playground. NYC leaves some identity imprint on everyone that passes through, but recently I’ve been exploring my identity as a “New Yorker.”

Less pontificating, more lists. Lists and commentary to come shortly.