this is family vacation

*Last week we took our first family vacation in five years. Five years ago, around this time, we went to mainland china. I still had braces then, and I remember this one shirt that I had way back when—a yellow cropped top with Van Gogh's bust in a three-quarter profile on it. We went with a tour group, and We traveled around some of the rural villages near yellow mountain. Back then, family vacations were more frequent but also more volatile. I was more volatile then—I threw a lot of tantrums, argued with my parents, and fought with my sister. I'm glad to say that five years later, things have changed.

*New York City is my city of choice. It's not the place I would choose to spend the rest of my life, but I love it as a metropolis—a highly concentrated hub of energy and exchange. the city gives me a buzz, an adrenaline rush—the kind that makes me giddy. I'm not a native of new york, but I can say earnestly that I love it and I know the places that U love in new york after having spent a summer living and working there. I like my relationship with new york right now: a familiar place i can enjoy, but not familiar enough to breed the worst kind of contempt—the kind of contempt that leaves you suffocated, tired, and jaded. I take the city in short gasps of air so that the buzz can brew and then settle down again. This is good: I want new york city to remain a place I love.

*It was nice being able to show my family around New York—to be their tour guide—and to visit different restaurants and shops together. A lot of my time in New York has been spent alone—and I like that—but I also appreciated shared experiences—and we've all grown up, and we know each other better now. A family is an object but it is also a process, and I think a family vacation is a self-contained, encouraging vehicle for that process.