[Pursuit: Explore] Revisiting Your Old Stomping Grounds Over the weekend I took a few minutes to go back to my old neighborhood and visit my old apartment (not pictured above - I’ll get there). I walked the halls, stood on my old door step, said hello to my old super, got a ginger ale from the crazy bodega proprietor who gave me gingerale and the occasional bag of Milano cookies. I wandered up and down the streets where I used to walk Elle. I thought about who I was then, wayyy back in October 2006-December 2008 and who I am now. I remembered some of my great times there, some of my bad times, and how now that I only live a $7.15 cab ride away - I somehow feel like it’s another city in some ways, another chapter in every way. When I moved into the West Village I used to walk over and stare at this building, pictured above, and located on West 11th. It is the home of Julian Schnabel. It is called the Palazzo Chupi and is as tall as an average 17 story building. It is extremely obtrusive, doesn’t match the conservative brownstones that surround it, and is widely disdained by the locals. Yet it is visited by many people as a site of modern design, innovative, beautiful. That’s the funny thing about life - how something could be beautiful to some and horrendous to others. How your perspective on a building or a person or an opportunity can change. How what you thought you wanted might end up being what you already have… I encourage you all to go back to one of your old stomping grounds. To close your eyes and remember…to soak it all in…. And then to go home just a little bit more grateful for that part of your journey.

[Pursuit: Explore] Revisiting Your Old Stomping Grounds

Over the weekend I took a few minutes to go back to my old neighborhood and visit my old apartment (not pictured above - I’ll get there). I walked the halls, stood on my old door step, said hello to my old super, got a ginger ale from the crazy bodega proprietor who gave me gingerale and the occasional bag of Milano cookies.

I wandered up and down the streets where I used to walk Elle. I thought about who I was then, wayyy back in October 2006-December 2008 and who I am now. I remembered some of my great times there, some of my bad times, and how now that I only live a $7.15 cab ride away - I somehow feel like it’s another city in some ways, another chapter in every way.

When I moved into the West Village I used to walk over and stare at this building, pictured above, and located on West 11th. It is the home of Julian Schnabel. It is called the Palazzo Chupi and is as tall as an average 17 story building. It is extremely obtrusive, doesn’t match the conservative brownstones that surround it, and is widely disdained by the locals. Yet it is visited by many people as a site of modern design, innovative, beautiful.

That’s the funny thing about life - how something could be beautiful to some and horrendous to others. How your perspective on a building or a person or an opportunity can change. How what you thought you wanted might end up being what you already have…

I encourage you all to go back to one of your old stomping grounds. To close your eyes and remember…to soak it all in…. And then to go home just a little bit more grateful for that part of your journey.