Say YES to yourself!

I was gonna book a flight to New York to attend a wedding nearby mid-September. I talked to a friend who lives upstate and landed an invitation to visit her. I planned to land in NYC, take a train upstate directly, hang out with her, keep it low key. I didn’t plan to stop in NYC; it’s expensive, I didn’t know anyone here, why bother...

Oh how wrong I was.

I found out one friend moved here, so I texted her in case we could manage to grab a coffee somehow. She said she wouldn’t be in town but I could crash at hers while she’s away. I wasn’t too keen on staying in big expensive NYC all by myself, so I didn’t confirm.

But, eventually, I thought f*ck it, I’ll use that opportunity! I’ll find a way to entertain myself in NYC for a week!

Once I made that decision, things started flowing in.

Someone I haven’t talked to since January messaged me about something totally unrelated and we found out we were both visiting NYC in the same dates. Two other random people said they were in NYC and would love to meet.

Then I was told to contact someone about a dance class — which ended in an offer to perform on stage in an actual theatre in NYC! And the teacher offered to host me in her waterfront apartment to be able to attend rehearsals and the show! And then I found out she was a very close friend of a famous author whose book deeply inspired me earlier this year and because of whom I was even interested in exploring this sort of a class while in NYC in the first place!!!

I’m overjoyed and overwhelmed, in a gleeful way, by NY and the sudden unexpected abundance of friends and opportunities! I was on the plane yesterday, exhausted & brain-dead, and my friend texted suggesting we go to a skyscraper observer deck for sunset after I land. Now, a girl always loves when a dude makes plans, let alone an indecisive, planning-averse chick like me in a state of brain-deadness. If I was alone, I’d probably just take it slow, stroll around and keep it boring. I had to run like crazy to make it from the airport, misplaced and overwhelmed by the sudden landing in a chaotic unknown city, but I made it.

On top, a local said she’s come up here many times but this was the clearest day she’d seen, with views all the way to Pennsylvania.

The message? Say YES to the fun things, to your dreams, to yourself, always! Don’t worry about the hows. Once you say yes, it will all sort itself out. ✨

And it will be better than you could have ever imagined!