A Love Letter To New York

I’m completely smitten with you. I think it’s gotten a little ridiculous because I keep creeping on pictures of you just to feel like you’re with me. I bring you up in conversation, the good times we’ve had and I think some of my friends are sick of it.

You may not be the most handsome guy in the room, but I love you just the same. You’re the guy that everyone seems to want to be with, but it’s the cool thing right now to bash him. You’re kind of like the bad boy of the moment.

Even when I’m not with you, you’re honestly all that I think about. I’m sitting here in Ohio wishing that I was with you—the crashing and screaming and lights and smells of hot dogs and warm pastries and coffee mixed with just a hint of grit. I would give a million breaths of fresh air to be with you in the soot.

You’re quite the expensive date and I know that. That seems to put a lot of people off, but I know you get what you pay for. Even if that means being with you in an overpriced shack, I’m willing to do that because you make sacrifices for the things that you love.

I love you because you make me the best version of myself. Just being around you and the company you keep makes me want to do more. We surround ourselves with creatives and dreamers and aren’t afraid to try something new and don’t mind the heat and cold. You make me a happier, funnier, more driven, person and for that I could never repay you.

I think a lot of people get the wrong idea about you. They think you’re loud and just a little too much. They think the people who hang out with you are no good and are too in your face, but that is just one of the reasons I love you so. We’re both a little damaged, a little frizzy and laughing too loud and revealing a little too much and we both really don’t understand subtlety or the point of waiting three days to call.

Like every good love affair we’ve had our ups and downs. I tried really hard in the past to make us work, but the world just keeps getting in the way. Once I found out that we’d be together in just a matter of weeks I could hardly contain myself. I keep counting down until we’re there again and I’m just another blip on your radar riding subway cars and burning my tongue on coffee on 5th Avenue.

I don’t care how stupid this makes me sound or how many people will tell me I barely know you and there are a million different things that would make me much happier. I just can’t wait to get back to you.

Photo by Thomas R. Stegelmann