This week I’ve been thinking about home. Not just the physical place where we live, but the place that becomes part of our identity. The place where we belong and the place that belongs to us.
I watched the movie Away We Go on my friend, Rob’s, recommendation. It was his favorite movie of 2009 so I dropped it into my Netflix queue. It’s a sweet story about two people who are about to start a family and want to find the perfect place to live. They trek across the country and up to Montreal. Eventually they end up in a place that neither of them ever imagined being the perfect place because they’d been there before. And there it was. Perfect, and so easy.
This week was the series finale of Ugly Betty. I became a fan late in the series, and really ended up loving the kitschy, wink-wink-nudge-nudge humor. What I really loved was Betty’s desire to try to do the right thing, work hard, and follow her heart. In the end of the series, her heart lead her to a tough decision to make a new home, even when staying where she’d always been was a good deal, too.
In Real Simple Magazine this month, I read a story about a couple whose newly renovated home caught fire. They considered moving to Bali, rebuilding the house they had lost, and everything in-between. Eventually, they stayed on their property and developed a very unique new home from two structures that they had never considered turning into a house. It was in the same place, but an entirely new idea of home.
I guess sometimes we can go home again, sometimes we’re better off making our own way, far away, and other times, we can stay where we are and make it new again. I traveled a lot in my 20’s and moved around all the time. Now I’m nearly 3 years in to my 3rd return to New York. I haven’t lived in any one city for this long since I was 18 years old. I’m glad to be making a little nest of my own, and I have to admit that from time to time I wonder if there will be another home chapter after NYC or if I’m really here to stay.
I’d love to hear your perspectives on the idea home.
The image above is not my own. It can be found here.
Published by Christa Avampato
IN BRIEF
Author, journalist, digital product manager, and licensed New York City tour guide. Creator and host of NYC's Secrets and Lies. Alumna of the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA), Arizona State University (Biomimicry), and the University of Cambridge (MSt in Sustainability Leadership).
I build digital media platforms, report on urban climate resilience and biodiversity, and produce live narrative experiences that connect communities to history, nature, and place.
THE DEEP DIVE
My work centers on a single thread: building systems and stories that foster deep connection to our shared world. Across digital streaming, environmental reporting, and live civic storytelling, I design experiences that help people understand complex ideas and the environments around them.
DIGITAL PRODUCT STRATEGY & MEDIA LEADERSHIP
At Carnegie Hall, I serve as Digital Product Manager, leading product strategy, operations, and technical delivery for the video streaming platform Carnegie Hall+. I translate artistic mission into scalable, high-performance streaming architecture that reaches audiences globally. Previously, I led agile product and delivery teams across operations and compliance at American Express, managed Broadway theatrical productions and national tours, and guided strategic initiatives across cultural institutions.
ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM & AUTHORSHIP
As a freelance journalist, I investigate how living systems, urban infrastructure, and human culture intersect. My reported features on urban decarbonization, biodiversity, coastal resilience, and biomimicry appear in publications including Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post, Mongabay, Natural History Magazine, and Foreign Policy Magazine. In fiction, I write the Emerson Page young adult novel series, alongside upcoming historical fiction and nonfiction works on New York history, mythology, and human resilience. I also write Togetherhood, a LinkedIn newsletter focused on urban ecology and community restoration, and co-host the podcast Frameworks in the Wild.
LIVE EXPERIENCE & CIVIC STORYTELLING
As a licensed New York City tour guide and live event producer, I transform urban landscapes into shared narrative encounters. I created, produce, and host NYC's Secrets and Lies, an interactive live storytelling series staged across cultural landmarks including the New York Transit Museum, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the historic tall ship Wavertree. I also design and lead site-specific walking tours exploring coastal ecology, food history, and neighborhood evolution, often with partners at Climate Week NYC and the Natural Areas Conservancy.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING MEDIA
Through my independent production studio, Double or Nothing Media, I develop ventures across media, ecology, and public history:
Digital Products & Strategy: Architecting scalable digital platforms, streaming experiences, and operational models for mission-driven institutions.
Environmental Reporting & Publications: Delivering long-form reporting, books, and newsletters grounded in climate resilience and regenerative design.
Site-Specific Live Storytelling: Producing immersive live shows and educational walking tours that engage public audiences in community history.
CONNECT
Website & Production Hub: doubleornothingmedia.com and christaavampato.com
Newsletter: Togetherhood on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/newsletters/togetherhood-7273771832221089792/
Instagram & Threads: @christarosenyc
Emerson Page Novels: emersonpagebook.wordpress.com/
View all posts by Christa Avampato
This week I’ve been thinking about home. Not just the physical place where we live, but the place that becomes part of our identity. The place where we belong and the place that belongs to us. 
Christa:
Whether you stay home or move away, what’s important to remember is to find your being and to stay centered.
Meditation is the way to radiate with inner bliss and joy.
You already have enormous potential: it is just a matter of discovering it. It lies dormant, waiting for a hello.
Let me explain.
I have been restless my entire life, always searching for greener pastures. I traveled here, there, everywhere I could find; but travel was not a fulfilling experience for me.
Then I discovered something: maybe the act of physical travel was not what I was searching for. So, I started to travel within my own self, that great undiscovered country they call the soul, the seat of learning. And I found bliss.
The moral of the story? You don’t have to run helter-skelter to find what you are looking for in your life. You already have it. Go within to discover that wisdom.
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Archan – I love you use of travel within. What a powerful, fulfilling journey to be on. I’ve been taking your meditation advice and have been spending 18 minutes per day doing it. I’ve never been able to do that before and am learning so much from the practice. I’m letting go of things in my life that sap my energy and seeking out what gives me energy. I can feel myself getting stronger every day. Did you eventually find a place that did feel like home after all your travels and meditations?
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Christa:
How nice of you to respond.
18 minutes sounds like a plan: it is a great start. Wow!
I wish I had your self-discipline when I started out.
Gosh, I couldn’t sit still even for five seconds. I was trained in sports, where you’ve got to keep on moving. Sports is physical, whereas with meditation it is a different ball-game. Meditation felt counter-intuitive for me.
And that’s just one of the reasons I found meditation difficult. I was also high-strung. (Not strung out, okay?).
My mind wandered all over the place when I first started the practice. I was a lousy student, to be honest. Since I could not find a decent guru, I had to train myself. As a late bloomer, it took me longer to find a way out.
You are in need of healing; you want to feel whole again; you are trying to overcome challenges you faced during your childhood. That’s why I feel we are kindred spirits.
We are not on the same journey, but a similar one.
Some people claim to have “arrived” like the Buddha. I am not an enlightened master yet, but I am on the journey.
The destination I have not yet reached, but I am optimistic. I have continued with meditation for several years, and now it is a daily habit.
I cannot imagine my life without it, and I am glad it is working out for you too.
That’s why I recommended it, because I had a hunch it would work for you as well. I felt like reaching out to you in order to help you. Please keep on meditating every day.
Meditating every day has helped me in so many areas of my work-life that it could fill volumes. Yes, I finally found a place that I could call home: within my own self. Cheers!
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