The Big Decision

Ben and I made a decision.  A big decision.  A very, very big decision at the end of July.

We moved.

We. Moved.

Mooooooooooooved!

Not down the street. Not to another part of the city.  Not to another borough. Not to Long Island or New Jersey or even Connecticut.

Nope.

We moved... home!  Kentucky, we came.

I said it was a big decision.

Obviously, we love New York. We love the city. We love our friends. We loved our life.

But, there's always a but, it was time to go home.

We missed our families. It was hard to be far away all of the time. The 11 hour drive was too much for weekend trips, and the two hour direct flight kept getting more and more expensive. The Chinatown bus worked, but only when we had several days to recuperate and several years of life to lose. We no longer wanted to miss our nephew's ballet recitals or dinners with our parents or weekends with Aunt Dorothy.

We wanted to be present for all of those little moments in our loved ones' lives. Participate and not just watch from afar. Facebook updates, random text messages, and twice a year visits weren't enough anymore.

We started to think that owning a house might be fun one day, especially after writing enormous rent checks month after month. A place of our own to host friends sounded exciting. A place with a locked mortgage that wouldn't raise every year nearly drove us to delirium.

We mulled over the decision to move for about six months. We tossed around the idea, but then the idea became more. It grew and turned into a dream, which morphed into a tangible reality. By the end of June, the opportunity to move arose and we took it.  We said "yes" with 99.9% assurance and .1% trepidation (because every big change is scary).

Now, we live in Kentucky.

We are home, finally home... and I mean that literally. We moved in with my parents until further notice. That situation alone will lend itself to many future posts.

But between leaving New York in July and living in Kentucky now, I still have many New York stories to tell. So, the blog will stay "Itty Bitty in New York City," and I will still write about New York life. Except, now, a little more Kentucky-ness will seep into the stories. Eventually, the blog will probably be more about Kentucky than New York, but that'll be awhile.

Ben repeatedly asked why I hadn't mentioned our move yet. I didn't really have a solid answer, but this morning I realized why. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to completely let go of the idea of us no longer living in a crazy city surrounded by eight million people, some of whom we call friends. I hadn't fully grasped such a dramatic change. But, now, for reasons even unbeknownst to me, I am ready to announce it.

Moving was the right and best decision for us. But, it does not mean that it was easy. Like I said before, every change is hard, even when it's a good one.

I wipe tears from my cheeks as I write this, and my heart pounds for the five years of extraordinary experiences and people I encountered. My connection to New York remains strong. My love for New York never waivers. I am forever changed and forever thankful to the greatest city in the world, New York.