“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realized what’s changed is you.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ll explain why I chose Empire State of Mind by JayZ and Alicia Keys towards the end of my post! Till Then, ENJOY!
To make the decision to come back home was never easy for me. It’s a bit funny how we are all aboard when we think of moving abroad and jumping into an unknown environment away from a place we’ve lived for most of our lives, but when we think of coming back home, it is difficult. Of course the top obvious answers are : you have better opportunities abroad, a better paying job , a better lifestyle (I will talk about this comparison in many next posts once I settle in and start living in India), a better work-life balance and less pollution and dust (This is one point which kept me away from India for a while as I am prone to dust allergies and have allergic bronchitis, but I am trying to find ways to navigate through it).
Did I make a pros and cons list? Of course I did! I make a pros and cons list to even buy a pair of shoes, how could I not make one for this major decision! But my biggest reason to moving back to India was staying closer to loved ones. There were glitches in terms of my husband’s visa situation too but saying that we had an option to wait it out on my visa, try all options possible but it didn’t seem to be worth the stress we were going through in terms of the uncertainty in the immigration situation.
Sometimes all you need is a push! I had thought about coming back a lot of times, but nothing seemed urgent ever to just do it. The pandemic and Mr. Trump’s executive orders helped me put a date and time on when I was moving back, and here I am now, sitting on my couch at home in India, with the fragrance of absolutely delicious poha being cooked by my mom floating around the entire house, typing my first post!
Those of you who know me, know how much I absolutely love New York city! One of the reasons which made me and Pratik (my husband) love the United States and difficult for us to leave was Manhattan and it’ll always be our No. 1 favorite city in the world. We’ve never seen a place which keeps giving soo much and there’s never a dull moment. The city made me who I am, a better version of myself since the time I moved there, so it’ll always be special to me. My move to India makes me wonder how I’ll be able to stick to my birthday resolution, to make myself a better version of myself from the past year. I know I sound skeptical, but that’s exactly why I am writing this blog to help you understand how I am going to get past it, and to document my own journey for my reference.
Now to the reason why I chose this song for this post, every time I flew into Newark airport, which was every Thursday when I worked in consulting, I used to listen to this song while my flight soared over Manhattan, and of course when I left the United States of America, I had this song play on my earphones while tears rolled down, thinking about all the memories and the good times I’ve had.
My favorite part of the song, which I truly believe:
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York !
As dramatic as I am, this’ll always be my theme song for my love for New York City! <3
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