It is this very morning, on this high 40’s sunny day -that, when I checked weather.com on Monday, was projected to be a scattered showers day- that I sat down at my computer to check my email and started typing “newpal…”
Backspace, backspace, backspace …
NOT newpaltz.edu, Leah. And here I am. Alone in my chair and in my mind. Just a teeny bit proud that it took me this long (just a hair under 11 months) to fudge-up going to the wrong website, as I am no longer a SUNY New Paltz student and as of 5 months ago, my email account was deactivated. I have fleeting strokes of missing New Paltz life, that swoop down on me; weighing heavy on my shoulders like the mornings proceeding a late night and too many long island iced tea’s at P&G’s. I am so certain that the storage room/backdoor coat room still bears one or two or ten of my forgotten jackets. In hopes that some very cold and needy freshman finds their way into the arms of one of my college coats, I free them to fate. Maybe the four years or so of memories I have made and stored into the said jackets, will make themselves tangible in the elbow crease of the new wardrobe of a youngen. As we leave behind the chilly months, the dawning of open-toed shoes is upon us. Now the flip flops that exposed my tiny toes to the brutal heels of fellow dancers in the bars and streets of New Paltz, will acquaint their soles with the concrete enormity that is this city. In attempt to make a mental list of “Spring/Summer” goals for myself, my first bullet point on the firstyearinNYC bucket-list is:
Dance my way through New York
As the sun begins to peak out from behind skyscrapers the size of infinity, I prepare to break out my flip-flops. I am sick of being in the shade. Almost more than ever, I am trying to deter myself from searching for elsewhere, bringing my one foot back in the door, and rather focus my damn energy on “practicing the art of staying” in one place and in the mindset of here, of now…and of making the streets of New York as elegant and as subject to be danced upon, as possible.
