NYC Adventures

I recently took a trip to New York City, and I wanted to share it with you!

I love traveling. I love exploring the world around me, and I value experience, memories, and knowledge way more than I will ever value material objects. There is also some thing about traveling that brings me so much peace. When you are sitting in a car or an airplane, you don’t have much to do besides read, sleep, reflect, or just hangout and watch a movie. When I get into the hustle and bustle of life, these are things that I don’t often take time to stop and do. Travel is almost like a refresh for me. I wish I could do more of it, but unfortunately, paying for my education and things like toilet paper come first before airline tickets...

This isn’t my first time going to NYC. Actually, I use to travel to NYC often, but most of the time it was associated with dance, performing, auditions, and with those things came striving, trying to prove myself, and a sense of competition. New York became a place that I didn’t want to be. Originally, New York was the place of a potential career, but the more and more that career path came closer, the more and more unappealing the idea of moving to the city seemed to me. And boy how things have changed.

For the first time ever, I went to NYC not to compete in a dance competition, perform, or attend a dance workshop, but to just go and visit friends. And for the first time ever, I saw the city in a different light. It’s funny what happens when you take the pressure off yourself: you find peace.

I was able to walk around Central Park, walk the streets of NYC, try a few new good eats, get coffee with friends, and enjoy my time there. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t drained. I was refreshed.

The best part, I took a dance class for the first time in 3 months. And I realized that although dance isn’t my career anymore, it will always be a part of me. Dance isn’t all of me. For so much of my life I felt defined by dance. I was a dancer. That’s how everyone knew me; I was never just Maddie. And with that role, that title, I was put in a box of what I could and couldn’t do. It made things complex. It made things messy when I stepped out of the box. My title became my reality and what seemed like the only possible outcome for my life.

Now it’s funny that I look back at how much my life has changed. Change provides us a different perspective. Change allows for growth. In the city that once brought me a feeling of uncertainty, is now the place I can find peace and refresh. What a funny thing that a simple change in perspective can bring.

Simply, sincerely,

Maddie