Category: home

adventure, change, creativity, dreams, home, writing

Inspired: Nothing to Lose But Time

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.” ~Paulo Coelho

Last week I wrapped up my final pieces of consulting work to make the leap to write full-time. Leading up to that moment, I felt a bit of trepidation. I’ve done well as a consultant for 2+ years and I worried about letting go of a good thing. The letting go was difficult but being in this new space isn’t. I don’t have anything left to lose and that is a very good feeling. It’s freeing and empowering. All I see ahead is open space where I can create. Now, everything is a canvas and I’ve got all the colors I need to paint something that matters. I’m home.

action, adventure, change, creativity, home, moving, New York City

Inspired: I’m Moving to Orlando, Florida

Christa Avampato

From PinterestAfter years of debate, I’ve made the decision to move to Orlando, Florida at least through the end of the year. I’ve been visiting my family there for long stretches of time while keeping my home in New York City. Now I’m flipping the paradigm to have my home in Florida with stretches of time spent visiting New York.

Some of the reasons are economic. How much higher can New York City rent climb? The answer is always higher, and I really want to own a home, a near-impossibility for me in New York. I could fork over an insane amount of monthly rent for a less and less appealing apartment, but that seems foolish. Better to buy a beautiful place in Florida and Airbnb the time I want to be in New York.

Some of the reasons are personal. My mom’s getting older. My little nieces are getting older. I want more space in my life for travel and exploration, and that’s a tough conundrum to crack with the cost of New York City living.

Many of the reasons are professional. I’m turning most of my attention to writing. That includes journalism, copywriting, playwright, and writing my first novel this Fall. I’ll likely add some teaching into the mix in some way. I’ve also got a few product ideas up my sleeves that I want to be able to build and test. In a less expensive city, this multi-faceted career is possible without sacrificing quality of life.

And it’s time for adventure. If New York has taught me anything it’s that I can survive and thrive and be okay anywhere I go. So I’m going to scale some mountains that have been calling my name for a long time. It’s time to meet them where they are.

I’ll have much more to say in the coming weeks about my move out of New York and into Florida. If nothing else, it’s going to be great material. It’s all great material.

art, choices, creativity, decision-making, home, writer, writing

Inspired: Cities—other than New York—that are good for writers

Christa Avampato

My friends are leaving New York City by the truckload. Some by choice and some because financially they had no choice. And I get it. This city can chew you up, spit you out, and then look at you like you’re the crazy one for wanting to be treated better. New York City is a crotchety old man.

Though like so many crotchety old men, it is an incredible teacher and good lord has it taught me. I grew up in the dirt of rural America (to this day there is a tractor crossing sign across from my childhood home) but I came of age in New York City. This great gorgeous place changed me and changed my life for the better. I showed me what matters. On these streets I figured out what matters to me and why. It gave me passion and heart and confidence. It gave me and put me through fire (literally and figuratively) but I emerged from the other side polished and transformed in ways I never imagined. New York City showed me what was possible by showing me my potential and daring me to take it.

Like so many of my friends, I am beginning to hear the exit music, or at least the exit music to this New York chapter of my life. And let’s be clear, I want to stay in New York. I fiercely love this city and its people and myself among them. There’s a part of me that will always be Christa in New York. Always. But, as life has shown me so many times before, what I want and what I need are often two very different things. And what I need now, in this moment, may be a change of scene. At least for a little while. At least for right now. Even Joan Didion, a towering figure in the literary world who famously penned her essay “Goodbye to All That” when she left New York for LA, eventually found her way back to Gotham. But she did need to take that journey. She needed to go away to come home again.

There’s a lot of New York in New York, and it may be time for more of us to spread our New York-ness to other places that need inspiration and courage to follow a less traveled, less conventional path. This world can’t stay on its current path of self-destruction and quiet desperation. We have to carve a better way forward.

New York doesn’t need another writer like me, but plenty of other places do. Friends, there’s a lot of blank canvas out there, a lot of stories that need telling, and they’re not coming to us. We have to go to them. We have to get out on the road, discover them, and then get it all down as faithfully and as honestly as we can.

If you’re a writer, or someone who likes to hang around with writers and other creatives, then New York City isn’t your only option to call home. Heck, it’s not even your best option. I recently found two lists (backed up by plenty of data) of cities in the U.S. that are great for writers and New York City isn’t anywhere on them:

This one lists: St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Orlando, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Denver, Seattle, and San Francisco.

Another lists: Chicago, Charleston, Austin, Bellingham, Asheville, Washington, D.C., St. Paul, Seattle, Great Barrington, New Orleans, Miami, both Portlands, Ann Arbor, Savannah, Pittsburgh, Jersey City, Iowa City, Portsmouth, and Cambridge.

I have no idea (yet) if any of these cities are right for me. Maybe you don’t either. What they do reveal is that we have options. We always have options. Now, it’s about choices.

change, grateful, gratitude, home, moving, thankful

Inspired: Eventually the Sun Returns

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Exactly as Phin and I crossed Central Park to begin moving into our new apartment, the sun began to part the clouds after days of torrential rain and months of intense uncertainty. My first thoughts was, “You’ve gotta be kidding me, Mother Nature.” She wasn’t kidding; she can be so cliché and I’ve never loved a cliché more than I did at that moment. The lesson wasn’t lost on me: eventually the light always returns and we have the right to bask in it.

This apartment search has been a tough journey, and a good one. I feel stronger, braver, and more open to change as a result of it. I learned what was important, and what wasn’t. Best of all, I realized just how many incredible people I have in my life. Thank you all for sharing in this journey and being a part of the solution. You’re welcome to visit any time and help me explore my new neighborhood. Actually, I insist. Tomorrow my blog returns to its regularly scheduled programming of inspiration and encouragement. Today I’m spending the day saying thank you, for everything.

change, home, New York City

Inspired: Movin’ On Up to the East Side

Christa Avampato
A typical block on the Upper East Side
A typical block on the Upper East Side

Today Phin and I will be movin’ on up in the true style of the Jeffersons. We’ll trek across the park to the Upper East Side to sublet from our lovely, kind, and incredibly generous friend, AraBella. After reading about our heinous apartment search via Facebook, she took pity on us after one hell of a crazy experience that showed me just how brutal the New York City real estate market has become. We’re so incredibly grateful to her!

New York City is changing a lot; I’m changing a lot. I never thought I’d want to own real estate. Now I know being a homeowner of some kind, somewhere, is in my future. Being at the mercy of a landlord every year is just not the way I want to live anymore. So now the question is where will this home be, and when will I get there. I have no idea what the answer is but at least I am clear on the question, and that’s half the battle, right?

In the meantime, Phin and I have a lot of exploring to do. We’re going to have to find our way around and develop some new routines. He’ll come through it like a champ; he always does. Me? Well, that remains to be seen. I’m going to let him lead. He’s got a better (and bigger) nose than I do. Luckily, we have a number of friends in our new neck of the woods and we’re hoping they will give us the inside scoop on everything wonderful around our new digs.

Here’s to change and everything that it has to teach us!

home, New York City

Inspired: Goodbye to the Upper West Side of Manhattan

Christa Avampato
Our favorite blocks on the Upper West Side look like this

The Upper West Side of Manhattan has been my home for almost 7 years and I have loved it here. The community, the peace, the people. It was always my dream to live in this neighborhood. This was always my New York. I learned so much here, about myself and about the world. This is a time that I will always be grateful for, a time that I will always remember with a lot of affection. It wasn’t always easy, though I wouldn’t trade a day of it for anything. As my friend, Moya, recently said, “This is the end of an era.” She’s right.

Of course, I’ll be back. I still teach my yoga class for seniors over here every week. I have a feeling Phin might continue to want to trot over here on our walks now and then to say hi to our old building’s staff with whom he shares a close bond—mostly because they adore him and he loves the treats they always have for him! However, it won’t ever be the same. I’m closing the book on this chapter, and there’s some sadness in that. I’m comfortable here. I love my life here. If I could, I’d stay. But I can’t, so I won’t. I’ll miss it, a lot. I miss it already.

To be honest, I’m not ready. And to be even more honest, the universe doesn’t care that I’m not ready. It’s decided that I will start a new journey now and it won’t tell me exactly where I’m going. Just that I’m taking a trip.

Alright, universe. I hear you. I’ll go. Show me what it is you have to show me. Teach me what it is you have to teach me. In your own twisted way, you’ll lead me to exactly the place I’m meant to be. Just let Phin and I take one more spin around this afternoon. Let us walk by all our favorite haunts and greet all our neighbors as we’ve done so many times for so many years.

Thanks for the memories, Upper West Side. We’ve loved playing our part in your history, and we’ve loved having you as a part of ours. It’s a place we will not soon forget.

apartment, home, New York City, real estate

Inspired: Transforming the New York City Residential Real Estate Market

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“Are you willing to give up your dog?” This is just one of the hideous comments a real estate broker recently asked me during my search for a new apartment. That’s all the motivation I needed to take action. New York City real estate market, your days as an inhumane, cold-hearted beast are numbered so enjoy them while they last. I’m changing you, like it or not, and New Yorkers are going to be so much better off for it. I’m on a mission, and you really don’t want to mess with me when I’m on a mission. You may get me down but you are never going to count me out. You may be tough, but I am tougher.

apartment, choices, home

Inspired: Take Only What You Need – A New York Real Estate Tale

Christa Avampato

From PinterestI took my first trip to see potential new apartments yesterday and with a lot of amenities I don’t need. They are decent deals for what they offer. However, what they offer doesn’t match my needs. Over lunch, I remembered a very wise piece of advice that my friend, Susan, told me about job hunting that applies to so many parts of our lives: don’t compare your options to each other; compare them to what you want. The hunt for a new home continues.

change, home, moving, New York City

Inspired: A New Home Will Give Me New Eyes

Christa Avampato
Likely to be my new view of NYC from my new neighborhood. Not bad, eh?
Likely to be my new view of NYC from my new neighborhood. Not bad, eh?

“In the choice to let go of your known way of being, the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.” ~ Danna Faulds, Go In and In: Poems from the Heart of Yoga

No one ever said that letting go was easy. In a little more than a month I’ll be in a new apartment, probably in a new neighborhood in a different borough, and all my patterns will be turned upside down after spending almost 7 years on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

There will be plenty of good things about this change, and there will be plenty of things that make it feel uncomfortable and foreign. I’ll be a stranger in my own life for a while and there’s no getting around that. I’ll see my beloved city from a new vantage point, literally and figuratively.

I’m a bit in denial and also very excited for the newness, the adventure, and the exploration. I’ve decided that I’ll find some way to celebrate all of it – the good, the bad, and the confusing. I’ll laugh and smile and marvel at the fact that I’m still just as capable of turning my life upside down as I was 20 years ago, letting the chips fall where they may, and reveling in it all.

We all need a good shake-up now and then. Perhaps I’ve had more than my fair share, though I wouldn’t change any of them. I’ve never regretted change; the changes are what have made my life what it is and for that I am very grateful.

home, time, work

Inspired: I Just Want the Good Parts of New York City

Christa Avampato

The 4 seasonsThe waves of cold this winter left me wondering how to get Phin and I out of the freezer of New York City. We’re also not fans of the city’s summer heat, mosquitos, and giant air conditioning bills. Being shut in during the polar vortex gave me time to think about how to make myself truly location-independent. I want all the inspiration and creativity of New York City and the space from it to fully appreciate what it and other cities have to offer. My California break last summer worked wonders for me, personally and professionally. I want to find a way to always take my work with me so I can spend the Spring and Fall in New York City and the Winter and Summer in a temperate climate. The wheels are turning. The will is there so I know the way can’t stay hidden for long.