TLDR: I'm leaving NYC for Nashville and I want to reflect on how great it has been.

Today I depart from NYC and head back to Nashville, TN. It is, to say the very least, a bittersweet decision. I am extremely happy to get back to my friends and family back home, I'm excited to experience the changes that the city has undergone in my absence and I'm keen to start something of my own that contribute back to all the things I love about the place but leaving is not easy.

Casey Pugh and Jamie Wilkinson gave me a great opportunity when they asked me to work on the Aziz Ansari site for his comedy special Dangerously Delicious. It helped pivot them off into a great new direction for VHX and eventually landed me a full-time gig with the newly seed-funded operation. The one caveat was that I could not work remotely forever, I had to move to NYC. That was only four years ago but I am indebted that they forced my hand. I had tried to leave TN for a solid decade prior to that but could never make the mental leap. With VHX, my fear of change was finally overcome by the desire to immerse myself in the opportunity.

I'm continuing my duties at VHX from afar, though now we're a part of Vimeo proper. It's a different beast these days but the challenges are still quite present. Kathleen Barrett (also a member of the original team) is now running things and her leadership is really remarkable. It's often hard to compliment someone without sounding like you're slighting someone else but I mean no offense to the work of Jamie and Casey, they did a great job. It's just that Kathleen is also doing a phenomenal job. Her leadership position is largely what fuels my continued interest in working there.

The VHX team on the whole is incredibly talented. I am extremely happy with every single person I continue to work with and that is no small feat. As I am not leaving them, I won't lament the situation except for the distance. I miss them already. Those that have left the team previously (Kevin Sheurs, Adam Klaff, Courtney Burton, Chad Pugh, Gina Binetti, James Dennis, Chris Lake, Scott Robertson, et all. I'm looking at you) were enormous influences on my experience in NYC. I am indebted to them as well.

Living in NYC has been a fascinating undertaking. It's a city of great dichotomy; both completely immersive and entirely alienating. Everything I longed for in Tennessee exists here - hard working like-minded people, food from every walk of life, vegetarian options that aren't just "fries" or "mac & cheese", unreal museums, an enormous variety of art galleries, music from every band you've always wanted to see (and tons from bands you never heard of) and robust public transportation. What it lacks is being affordable, being clean and being easy but that's par for the course when you get the rest.

A note about the subway, Everyone loves to complain about the subway but I never got tired of it. It sucks when your train doesn't show up or gets put on some alternate path but it beats car culture bar none. It's also hard to verbalize how educational it is to come from a largely White population and be placed inside a car with people from all walks of life, languages and experiences. It really is The Great Equalizer and, surely, contributes to the idea of the "coastal liberals" - people that have been thrown into more than one way of life and can empathize with a wide variety of individuals. I won't make it political but my experience certainly speaks to that.

Since I've already exceeded the word count of any other post on this site, I might as well point out a few specifics of my experience either as recommendations or just random observations:

• Vegetarian in NYC is great. Even if it's not your thing to go fully meatless, restaurants like Champs, Wild Ginger and Red Bamboo are delicious. Oh, and having the Impossible Burger was a real treat.
• I love the abundance of art installations. Start with the Chelsea Galleries, particularly the David Zwirner locations. After I started working in that area I stopped visiting them as much but I can't begin to recount the number of exhibitions I saw that blew my mind in one way or another (Marcel Dzama, Doug Wheeler, Neo Rauch, William Eggleston, Weegee, etc etc). Even if what you see is pretentious beyond belief, it's a fun viewing.
• On that note, go see Dia:Beacon, a massive art gallery just a short train ride up north that houses enormous sculptures. You walk inside and among them. The train ride is beautiful and the converted cracker factory is something else. There's also Storm King but I never made it out there.
• Roosevelt Island is a strange gem. You take an exhilarting Tram ride over to it and then encounter a sleepy community that also contains an abandoned mental hospital and a giant floating head of FDR. Neat.
• Pizza from Scarr's should be consumed at your earliest convenience. I also love it from about 500 additional places. NYC pizza runs such an absurd gamut but it rarely ever dips into inedible.
• Seeing Larry King eat peanuts out of a bag over a trash can will be seared in my mind forever.
• Being able to attend a Bernie Sanders march, multiple PRIDE parades and the Women's March with thousands of people at every single one was certainly noteworthy. Going back to a Red State won't be quite as supportive.
• Experiencing Bushwig and loving the supportive, complicated, community that are drag queens. See also: House of Yes.
• I think Almost Ready Records won my heart for best record store but I spent a ton of time in the Academy Records Annex, Captured Tracks, Black Gold and Co-Op 87 (to name a few).

Maybe my experience here was not all that unique? Maybe what I listed above is what everyone lists - good people, food, art and weird destinations? But it was unique to me and that's really all that matters. I don't really know how to wrap this up as I could likely prattle on for days about it. NYC was a life changing experience, for the better in my case. Thank you to everyone that contributed to this beloved experience. I'm excited for what happens next but will likely put this as a high mark on my life in general.