Have I mentioned that I moved to New York City for one year? When I packed up my small-town life and came up here on a hope and a prayer, I always thought I’d stick it out for at least one year, because anything less just isn’t giving it a proper shot. I didn’t know what would happen after that- if I would return to my comfortable North Carolina town or try a new place- but at least I would have given the city its due diligence and let it knock me about for a decent amount of time, you know?

Well, it certainly has knocked me about, but I’m happy to say that it has not yet made me cry “Uncle”, and I am alive and well and thriving, aside from a three-year case of the worst and most frustrating writer’s block I’ve ever had. I cross my fingers and hope my creative juices have just hibernated and not died entirely, but time will tell. Drawing writing inspiration from my day-to-day means I require a delicate balance of being just busy enough to have interesting things to write about, and not too busy to have time to write about them- a balance I have rarely achieved. And, you know, not being in a global pandemic helps creativity too.

But enough complaining! Let me tell you what my NYC life looks like, three years in and counting.

It is a sultry summer day, and I am in the brief interlude between my early-morning-work and my rest-of-the-day work. Every Tuesday we start work with a zoom prayer call at 7:30 AM, which makes this non-morning-person a little cross eyed, and then we head in to the office a little later for a long day of meetings and thises and thatses, before ending the day with the BT Prayer Meeting. It’s a good day, just a long one.

Oh yes, have I mentioned that I’m currently working for the Brooklyn Tabernacle? Since last fall, I’ve been doing administrative work for Sanctus NYC- the young adult ministry at the church- and you better believe it’s keeping me on my tippy-toes. My day to day involves everything from helping execute the events my leaders plan, to writing birthday cards, to shopping for watermelons at Trader Joes, to building clothing racks, to booking volunteers and running ProPresenter, and you better believe there’s not much time for boredom.

Besides the admin work for sanctus, I am also busy memorizing the songs for the album we’re recording with Ms Carol Cymbala, going on the occasional singers trips to places like Florida and Alabama, and of course singing every Sunday morning and afternoon. It’s a wild life I’m living, y’all. Personal life? What’s a personal life? But it certainly is rewarding and I’m pretty grateful for the opportunity to be walking in my own two shoes right now.

I feel like a proper New Yorker now- the kind who is too busy to actually spend time enjoying New York City, and instead is just living here and putting in those long hours, traversing the little commute back and forth to work, and crashing in her apartment on days off, too weary to adventure much. My wandering spirit is a tiny bit sad to not have time to be spontaneous very much, or to see my family very often at all, but seasons come and seasons go, and I know it won’t always be like this. Meanwhile, pray for your girl’s sanity, ok? This year alone I have trips to Florida, Alabama, Panama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida again, maybe Atlanta and maybe the Caribbean, and hopefully North Carolina again. And you know, hosting out of town guests also, and tryna get all my work done between. Like I said, pray for me. 😀

Another big change is that God dropped my very own Brooklyn apartment into my lap, so since the beginning of the year I’ve been living alone in my darling pre-war apartment in Crown Heights. My commute is shorter, my neighborhood is more dangerous, and I actually have space to host people now. It’s actually felt like moving to an entirely different city, going from Queens to Brooklyn, and while I sometimes miss the relative safety of Queens and miss the million delightful places to eat outside my front door and miss paying so much less rent, I still am relishing having my very own place to set up house, and having an apartment with good bones and no 70s carpet and green appliances. Someday I’ll show you my space, but for now, I must run off to work.

It’s been nice chatting, and I hope to talk to you soon!