Dear New York
I think it's time we say goodbye
Ah yes… I finally summoned the willpower to make this newsletter.
After nine years in this city, we’re finally moving at the end of the month.
Adam & I will be spending a couple months in Baltimore with his family, and then a couple months in Taiwan with my family. We’ll be doing lots of travel, soul searching and exploring.
The thing with New York is that it sucks you in, and for nine years I was sucked in. You pay your insane rent and discover nooks in the city and get stuck on subways and in traffic and you find it harder and harder to venture outside the city. At least it was that way for me.
I feel like I’ve been in a rut recently and everything has been so repetitive. The days blur together and I forget what I even did the day before. I don’t want to wake up one day and be 50 and still struggling to catch a mouse in my insanely expensive but shitty apartment in NY. I want to go out there and I want to live life a bit more. I’m still young and I have a job that allows me to work from anywhere. It would be stupid of me to not take advantage of that.
We’ve talked about moving for the longest time but it never really felt like I was officially ~done~ with New York each time. I always felt like there was more to accomplish, more to explore, and more to experience. But I think I’ve finally come to a point where I’m at peace with leaving. Sure, there will always be more stuff to do, more people to meet and shows to go to and that’s okay. I’ve done dozens of bookstore readings, school visits, been on the news, won an award, published all my books and met hundreds of people here. There could be more here, but I could live more of my life outside of here too.
I’m really excited to visit new places and get inspired. I think it’ll be a good thing, it just feels terrible sometimes knowing I’m leaving behind so many friends here. But I know I’ll be back to visit, it’s just sad to know it’ll be limited to shorter times.
It’s going to be a bittersweet month for sure as we say goodbye (for now) to all of our friends, completely downsize our things (we’re hoarders), and pack up everything.
It’s the end of an era. I will say I am sad I will no longer get to say “Lian Cho is a Brooklyn based author/illustrator.” It always had such a nice zing to it. Oh well, at least it’ll be commemorated in my book bios.
Onward to a new adventure!
You might want to consider Toronto. It’s very multicultural, so you’ll face less racism. And Canada has free healthcare and no guns. Plus authors are highly respected here (most of our national heroes are either hockey players or writers, seriously).
To move is bittersweet but I hope it's a lovely time of discovery! I'm in DC and am jealous that Baltimore gets a bit better of an arts scene than we do-- esp with MICA right there! I hope you enjoy it!