I am a West Coaster. Born and raised. My speech is slow, my pace is slower, my words form in mumbled patterns—the aftermath of trying to keep up with my brain. I visited New York when I was 14. I remember being taken aback by the clichés; the city lights, the skyscrapers, the people always in a rush to places of which I would never know all still remains stuck to the back of my mind. Now, seven years later, I am going to visit in a very different way. And so it is somewhere between invigorating and terrifying to experience something that is so foreign yet so close in relativity. We will speak the same language in understanding, but will we in mindset? Will my coastal nature be too small for this place? These are all worries that have passed over my mind again and again; I made an agreement with myself to let them go. My purpose: to listen, to observe, to reflect, to notice. The outcome: unknown to me, but I can’t wait to find out. Here we go.

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Talia Bootz

5.3.2017