NEW YORK, NEW YORK
The first time I left home—far away from everything I knew—was for graduate school. From the moment I decided to move to New York, I accepted that my life would now unfold alongside uncertainty. Uncertainty has always been part of life, of course, but it takes on a different weight when you relocate to another country, leaving behind every familiar person and way of living. New York can be intimidating in that sense; it’s vast, relentless, and unapologetically alive. Yet coming from Bangalore, I felt strangely at home. I loved the pace. I lived each day as if it might be my last in the city. My parents couldn’t understand why I filled my days the way I did, always out, always moving. But the truth is: there’s simply too much to experience here—an entire lifetime wouldn’t be enough to catch up with this place.
If someone asked me why I feel so deeply attached to a city I arrived in only two years ago, I wouldn’t know where to begin. There are too many reasons. The most important one, though, is that New York allowed me to be my most authentic self. It showed me who I could become when I lived fully in that version of myself. Some places you bond with instantly, and time has very little to do with it. And if you give this city a real chance, you’ll find you can slow down, even within all the chaos.