Moving Back and Moving Forward
My daughter is moving back to New York City! Next weekend we will be helping her move back, really move forward. We are all pretty happy about this move. She returned home, to her childhood bedroom, last March when the pandemic hit. She gave up her apartment in September since she was really living with us full-time, working hard as a lawyer remotely.
But the time has come for her to return to her independent life, even though the city is far from normal, and she will still work from her apartment. Interestingly enough, she is returning to her old building, but is now moving into a two-bedroom apartment that costs the same as her pre-pandemic one-bedroom apartment. So that’s a bit of icing on the proverbial cake.
She’s looking at furniture from West Elm and art from Anthropologie, and scouring pictures from Pinterest to find her aesthetic for the new apartment. And that’s fun and exciting. She has her previous stuff in a storage facility near us, so moving back should be easy, with a little more space to furnish. Her two cats will move back eventually, even though she laments their return to confinement. Those cats have loved the run of our house, open windows everywhere, and their buddy Mister.
We will miss the daily political conversations, the long dinners, the frequent technological support she provides, and just her daily presence in our lives. But she’s a car ride away, and she’ll be back and forth she says. She loves August on Long Island and being near the beach.
And so it goes. How nice would it be for life to go back to normal?
I think all of this has been so hard for this age group. I have nieces and nephews who did the same thing. Mine are in college and while it has not been the same they did go back in August and have stayed there. It is this weird all or nothing right now -- with vaccines on the way hopefully we can look forward to visits again Best of luck to her.
ReplyDeleteI love your title as it certainly describes the path as two directional! Your post gives us all hope that we are moving forward and that is a very good thing...even though you will certainly miss her. Two of my grandchildren have been here 5 days a week since last March. When they do move back into regular school and day care lives, I will miss them lots even though I know we all need to have a little bit of socialization outside of our little bubble.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good move, all around. Nice to read of this moment of icing after all that's been served the prior 12 months.
ReplyDeleteThat is so exciting and a step back towards normalcy. As sad as the circumstances, I am sure you will treasure the time she was home with you guys. A rare gift.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how something so awful as this pandemic also brought some joy in our lives. How beautiful that your daughter had a safe haven for the past year and is ready to move on and back to her old digs. I had an amazing opportunity to have my daughter and grandson live with us for part of each week for the past year. It was a gift I will always treasure. Soon, they will no longer be living here and it will be lonely... but like your daughter, they need to return to normalcy. As always, I love reading your writing!
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