New York City doesn’t notice when I leave. There’s no grand send-off, no pause in the constant motion. New York moves the same way it always has fast, loud, and relentless. It’s almost like I was never a part of it to begin with.
I can’t tell if that’s the hardest part or the easiest.
By the time the skyline fades in my rearview mirror, I’m no longer sure on how I feel about leaving. There’s no dramatic sense of closure or an overwhelming sense of relief. It’s just…quiet. A kind of quiet that settles slowly with each mile my tires cover as concrete and glass give way to open stretches of highway. I never realized how much space I actually needed until I had it.
The drive is long, and the world seems to shift in stages. Cities thin into suburbs. Suburbs dissolve into wide, open land. Th
