A New York State of Mind

Written By : Hannah Corbett

New York City. The place I fell in love with. The place I thought I’d never leave.

I haven’t lived there in years, but the memories feel like yesterday. Sometimes it’s like I bump into who I used to be if I stand at the same crosswalk I once used to walk every single day. My favorite restaurant. My go-to coffee shop. Bryant Park in the morning. Washington Square Park in the afternoon.

I can’t tell you how many times New York would just creep up on me like that. That’s the thing about this city—it doesn’t ask for your attention, it just takes it.

New York City. It’s where everyone wants to be. And suddenly, it’s been years since I had a real life there. I live over 500 miles away now. But I was just there this past weekend. And it never fails to take my breath away.

There are so many people, leading so many different lives.
Kids playing basketball.

Couples crossing the street holding hands and laughing.
Couples crossing the street not holding hands.
People eating dinner outside, enjoying the almost-summer air.
Musicians playing on the sidewalk.
Pop-up shops with 20-something girls lined up around the corner just waiting to get inside, just waiting to feel like they’re a part of something.

I can’t even comprehend how it all happens at once. And then I started thinking… I don’t even know if I could live there again.

Because it takes all of me. All of my energy, in a good way. Everything is an activity. An experience. A moment you remember forever. The moments you live in New York—they feel like they last a lifetime. Like I could jump right back into the one I just made, as if it's a scene in a movie I’m still living in.

Sometimes, it’s not even the city itself that takes me back—but the songs, the movies. All my favorite songs seem to transport me right back to New York. A specific street, a rooftop, a cab ride with the windows down. Even just hearing the opening of a song I used to listen to on the subway makes me feel like I’m there again, like I never left. TV Shows and movies too. I’ll put on something set in the city, and suddenly I’m 19 again, running late, chasing some dream in an outfit that didn’t quite make sense for the weather. Those moments might be long gone, but they live on in playlists and film scenes. And now, instead of feeling sad that I’m not there, I use it all as inspiration. I write from that place. I create from it. It reminds me of what I’ve lived—and what’s still possible.

I feel like I’m always being pulled in two directions. New York… or the beach.

And while I think my everyday life will always be somewhere near the ocean, my heart still lingers in New York.

The fast-paced, anything-can-happen-at-any-time energy you just can’t find anywhere else.

It’s a New York state of mind. And there is no place is like it.

You either love it or loathe it.
You’re there for a day, or the rest of your life.