Ten Years Ago Today

As of right now I have lived in Portland for an entire decade. I spent basically all of my first 38 years in NYC (with a few years in other places here and there) but ten years ago it was time for a change.

I originally planned to recap a lot of the reasons for the move, and the move itself and all the wackiness that ensued but that’s ten years ago stuff.

I just wanted to mark the occasion. This is the longest I’ve lived outside of NY to date, and the furthest. So I thought, then, I would sit and discuss differences between the two. But I realized you can sum it all up easily:

Twizzlers used to be more common than Red Vines back on the East Coast. Now, out here, Red Vines are more easily found. There ya go.

Sure I could get into NY being kind but not nice and Portland being way fuller of people who are nice but not kind. I could explain my theory that because of far more pervasive public transit running 24/7 you had more of a bar culture in NY than I find out here. And yet I find, in the moment, I don’t actually care.

Still wanted to mark the moment in time though. A decade ago I tore up a large part of my life by the roots and moved out of NY. I’d done it before but only for a few years (to Boston) and when I did I was back in NY a bunch anyway. This would be, the idea was, permanent. Obviously I don’t know if it will be, but I’m a decade into the move and have no plans to leave, so far.

A decade seems like a week, and like fifty years all at once, which is honestly normal for a lot of people. Stopping to look back over it, to consider the changes and the process, and the general ups and downs of life along the way – well it seems even bigger and smaller at the same time.

Both places are strange, wonderful, terrible, frustrating, great places to be. They’re both filled with humans, and snacks. I do spend more time on patios out here than I did, but I also spend far less time on stoops. Is one better than the other? Naw.

And maybe that’s it. On the whole a place is a place. You bring yourself to it, and that’s what you get from it. My location changed but I didn’t, so while stuff is different it is also the same in most of the ways that matter. Except it is harder to find Twizzlers. Still strange.

Do I actually have anything deep to say, an important life lesson learned, some wisdom to impart? Fuck no. I just wanted to mark the time.

A decade down. Who knows how many more to come.