oh, geography

As much as I love my NY life, there have definitely been some serious sacrifices I had to make while living here.

But more than the insanely high rent and brutal winters, I think the biggest drawback would be not being around my closest loved ones.

Seems obvious right?  But it recently crept on me as a slowly realized understanding that things are just not quite the same no matter how much I keep in touch. Throughout the 2-year duration that I've been living here, I have rarely felt strong pangs of homesickness (except for some random moments when I start to really miss my grandma), especially since I still talk to my family and my best friend back at home on a fairly regular basis.

But I realized that you can't deny the power of proximity.  No matter how much effort both parties put in, you feel an inevitably growing distance. When you talk to them, you find yourself omitting those stupid, little details of your life that you normally would share with someone you see on a daily basis (i.e. current roommates, coworkers).  And it's not that you literally can't share those things, but you just don't see any point in it... who really wants to hear that stuff right?  So you try to package all the happenings of your life into more readily digestible forms - the quick highlights or the overarching theme of the season.  But what we fail to see is that those silly, petty details (those complaints about the train traffic, that crazy scene you might've seen on the streets, that "special little moment" you might've shared with someone) are actually the tiny propellers that help sustain relationships.

That's why I value my roommates (j & e) so much - they're my home away from home.  As "introverted" as I am, I enjoy having roommates and I think I would drive myself up the wall if I lived alone.  Sometimes you just need that person that you need to rant to or in my case, listen to (haha).  Yes, some of the stuff we may talk about may be inconsequential, but hey- it's the glue to our bond. Their companionship is truly priceless, and it'll be a strangely happy/sad day when we all find possibly more significant other's to move in with.