In 2016, I moved to New York for work. I was young, naive and ready to feel an electric energy. When I got settled, it wasn’t what I dreamed of. It was hard, scary and lonely. Within 9 months, I knew I wanted to move back to Nashville because I felt safe there, so that’s what I did. Fast forward to today, my work has been completed shifted into something I never thought was possible. It allows me to pick up and move freely and for that I’m very grateful. New York City has always weighed on my heart and it has since the day I left in 2016. I left a lot of chapters there unwritten and didn’t do a lot of the things I set out to do. 2023 me is now fortunately in a space where I could go back to New York and do an extended stay to see if it felt different. Spoiler alert - it did. A love letter to you New York. You’re still damn challenging, but you light my soul on fire. You give me the courage to fully be Kylie. You allow me to look around and realize how small I am and the decisions that I make compared to how big this life is. You remind me that the world keeps spinning on even if you feel like the world is crashing down around you. You remind me that every single person on this earth is doing their very best in any given moment. You give me grit and you fuel me. So, to those who asked what I was doing in New York. It’s that. It’s changing your mind, it’s trying things out again when life has shifted. It’s to feel annynous and small for a little bit, so I can ground myself. It’s getting quiet in a big city, so I can listen to the other messages life is giving me. The last three weeks were so defining. They gave me a renewed freshness and wider eyes for just how much life there is to be lived. I laughed, tried new things, cried here and there, felt happy, felt surrounded, felt lonely and more. But more than anything, I felt like the fullest version of me. I felt stronger than 2016 Kylie and I got to try again. And that feeling? That’s the magic. Until next time New York. ❤️