I Heart New York City
Arrive in the center for the cost of train fare.
Happy Monday!
From the desk of Rachel Leeke, is where I share weekly observations on two important forces in my life, love + travel.
I provide tools in each newsletter to support you in creating the confident, loving, and adventurous life you deserve because the aim is to get free.
Join in my journey as a wife who enjoys spending time in a book, on a plane, or at the top of the yoga mat.
Read up on my last newsletter about my time in Cartagena here or the entirety of my work here.
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Also, my birthday post was included on a list of reads one author is loving this week 🥺
I put my heart on the page every week, and your support means the world to me. Thank you is not enough, but it will have to suffice.
While growing up in New York City, moving throughout the boroughs was a fact of life.
My father worked for the MTA, and my mother, like millions of other in the tri-state, relied on the same system to carry her to and from work daily. Starting at the age of nine, instead of riding a school bus to junior high, I traveled solo on public transportation, jumpstarting an adventure that would continue throughout high school graduation.
For someone still in the single digits, it was a potent taste of independence. I was with the masses. I was finding my way. Sometimes, quite literally, when wiping condensation from bus windows to ensure I don’t miss my stop. In my mind, because business people and beggars alike took public transport, I needed only to decide who I wanted to be, and it was so. I’d fill my mind up with all kinds of important tasks as if I wasn’t only on my way to school. And I’d click the side button on my flip phone to check the time with an urgency usually reserved for a wristwatch. In my head, I was an adult out in the world to handle their business. My plaid school uniform skirt and curved collar blouse served as a daily betrayal of my inner image.
I’ve always understood the magic of this city. The capacity for it to deliver you to your dreams if you dare to choose it. The greatest things in life are paradoxes, so naturally, New York City can feel absolutely enormous one minute and then super small the next.
It’s a place where entire worlds collide.
It’s where, for the cost of a train fare, you can arrive in the center of what your heart desires. You can be among the fashion behemoths on 5th Ave. or head downtown to Wall St. and the financial district. You could grab bake and shark in Crown Heights, Czech food in Astoria, and the best Italian food on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. The diversity meant something to my pre-pubescent mind. It was proof that there was space for us all. It was a reminder that if you could dream it, no matter how big that hope, New York could deliver it. It’s one of the main reasons why in high school, my friends and I routinely visited Times Square movie theatres. Where else could we see ourselves illuminated by spotlights and fluorescent bulbs the entire world flocks to see?
New York offers a hop-scotching between the land of the visible and the soon-to-be.
For those who’ve trained their eyes to possibility, the automated “stand clear of the closing doors, please” is an offer for adventure to whisk you away.
I wish you a week full of discovery.
Love,
RL
P.S. This city nourishes many parts of me. Here’s some fuel for your next adventure.
LET ME KNOW:
What location, person, or experience has made you feel like anything is possible?
Do you still live in the city you were raised?
What’s something, to you, with a low cost that feels like it should be valued way more?
What’s for lunch? Ordering in? Or did you pack a meal?
Love is the thread that connects all of us, here’s more on the topic.
- I cried at a wedding, Love & Apples.
- Knowing when to open up Boundaries.
- Possibility in the In-Between.
- My reason to write.
Loved the detail of you wiping the window to make sure you could see the next stop! I know that. Not getting to the place you needed to go was always scarier than the actual bus or train-ride itself!
I just wanted to say that I just discovered your corner of the internet and it's brought a sense of comfort over me that I have not felt in a long, LONG time. But- to answer the prompts at the end (which I love the concept of) ,,, When I'm home for the holidays I live in my hometown AND my childhood home in Beverly, MA bouncing between there and Boston. If you're ever in Boston, I highly recommend Contessa--- the best best BEST drinks and brunch in the world. That's also something I feel is not valued as much as it should be- a good solid brunch with some hefty and leafy conversation :)