baby I'm from New York...

...concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do!

It's funny that I never know the exact day I moved to New York. You'd think that would be one of those moments in your life when you'd know all the little details of what was going on that day, but to be honest it's all a little bit of a blur. I don't say that because I tried to forget the experience. Really it all just happened so fast, that it's hard to remember exactly what happened.

About five years ago, sometime in the fourth week of July, I was packing up all my stuff getting it ready to be UPS'd to New York City. Yes... I UPS'd my stuff here. It was only like 8-10 small boxes of clothes, pictures, and personal effects. I didn't have a plan, wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I knew this is where I needed to be.

Somehow I had convinced myself 75 days earlier that if I could make it in New York, then nothing else mattered.... and well here I am. Five years later in love, enjoying life, and living in the moment. All I can say is if and when you ever REALLY want to challenge yourself... go ahead and just do it.

What do you have to lose?

At that point in my life I had felt trapped, not by my job or my family, just mentally trapped by fear of failure. I didn't know how to challenge myself. Life had thrown some pretty challenging obstacles in my way, but I didn't have a purpose. I lost both my parents pretty young, had a few failed attempts at love and relationships, and I was lost in my head half the time. Life was a little dark - I'm not going to lie. I was in a the midst of a hardcore pity party. There were days when I felt cheated, mad at the world because my life sucked - while everybody else was happy in bliss, enjoying the blessings in life that God had failed to grant me.

My outlook and perspective on life was a little jaded to say the least. Back then I was a much angrier person, but mostly angry with myself. I intentionally isolated myself as a form of consolement. It's hard to feel like people understand you, when they have no way to relate to the things you are going through. So I needed to become nobody... so I could be somebody.

I had come to the realization that if I didn't find a way to figure out what I wanted out of life, then there was no possibility of ever achieving anything. As I've heard it said once before, you need to "plan your work and work your plan". My plan was to find my passion, so I could be passionate about life.

Five years later... I was blessed with more than I could have ever dreamed of and I'm not bullshitting you either. It took a really long time to get here, but I finally made it on my own... with my own blood, my own sweat, and a whole lot of tears. It feels pretty nice.

Next time, remind me to tell you about how Umo made it to New York. That story involves quite an experience with airport security, and is far more interesting!