Stacey's 2nd Year in NYC

 Stacey here:

It’s pretty surreal to say that it’s officially been two years (four days ago) since I started calling New York my home. 

When I was 10 years old I told myself I would one day live in New York, and fast forward to two years ago, it became a reality.

This city is crowded, cutthroat, jumbled and chaotic. But no matter what your view of  the concrete jungle is, it’s still the greatest city in the world. 

Once you live here, it becomes so much more than the buildings you see in movies; it becomes more than a place on the map that you put a pin on and save on your places to go someday. 

It becomes a place where dreams that you didn’t know you had are realized.  A place where you fail and you look at that failure as an opportunity.

It becomes a place where unexpected friendships are built and you know that it will last forever. A place that allows for adventure and gives you that thrill to explore more of the world because the culture it exposes you to is just insane.

It becomes a place where you, as a married couple get to live with your best friend and live life like a family should because that’s the closest thing you have to a family. A place where you struggle with being home sick often because you know you’re missing out on so much at home but you also know that you’re called to stay in this city.

It becomes a place where God shows you over and over again that He is faithful and that His plans are better than yours.

This second year, in this chaotic yet vibrant, loud yet peaceful, dirty yet beautiful city was just that for me.

I’ve never felt more like a failure in my career until I moved out here - that I thought not being in the health industry somehow was the end of it. BUT God showed me that He had something better - that this “failure” was only the door to an amazing opportunity. That my now employer trusts me and invests in me, allowing me to try something I’ve never imagined myself doing. Year two in this city, made way for me to changed career and bring me to where I am right now, a dream that I didn’t know I had.

I think everyone can agree with me that the older you get the harder it is to make friends. Add living in a metropolitan city and it almost becomes impossible to do so. BUT somehow God’s faithfulness and plans are better than mine. He had brought more friends that I can imagine this last year alone. Unexpected friendships, the kind that you get to travel around the world with and get excited in exploring all cultures and foods. The kind that is not afraid to be stupid and be dumb with you. The kind that values vulnerability and honesty more than anything and you know that’s real and lasting right there.

Year two for me in this city gave me and Jon the opportunity to live with our best friend, George!  We’ve definitely gotten some weird reactions when we tell people that we live with him BUT I’m glad God gave us this time in our lives to do so. I’m thankful that  Jon and I’s plan of living by ourselves during our first year of marriage didn’t happen. We would have missed out on so many memories we got to create with George.
Those nights staying up til 3am to talk about life, those weekends slaving in the kitchen and just creating and sharing our passion for food; even getting to do a pop-up concept dinner. All the domestic and international travels the three of us took. The hard conversations we had to have, the disagreements, I would not trade those moments to anything.
George had become our family away from our family and during times of me struggling with homesickness somehow, living with him makes it easier to cope with that.

This is our current apartment view. And to some New Yorkers, it can easily get old. But to me, it’s more than just a view. Every time I stare at it, it reminds me of my life here in New York. It reminds me of God’s faithfulness and His mercy and love towards me. 

Apt 14E

Year two was already crazy, these were just the main big things And I can’t be more excited to see what this upcoming year is going to bring about. Oh! And to kick this year 3 off, we watched this musical:

"The future is scary, but you can't just run back to the past because it's familiar. Yes it's tempting, but it's a mistake."