Dear New York City-

We had a great six months. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I loved our weekend movie dates, and our Sunday walks in the park. I loved all your energy and exuberance, which made me want to live fuller as well. However, this relationship cannot continue. As much as I like shopping so much better at the easy to manuver West Side Market, I can no longer stand for your $6.00 Kashi cereals and your $8.00 ice creams. I can't handle paying the $1,100 rent in my large, yet old, falling apart apartment, in which it seems ants will make a lovely home in the spring. While I appreciate that I had a washer in my apartment, a great feat in NYC, I do not appreciate that you flooded my apartment with mold, and consistently make me hang my clothes to dry. I love that you have public transportation, the one thing actually cheaper than other places. I don't love, however, waiting 15 minutes for the train only to find out that I have to stand wedged between a man who smells like moldy cheese, and a women who looks like it. While I love the elegance of  your movie theatres, and the simple fact that every movie always plays first here, I cannot handle sneaking the $9.00 movie ticket and feeling like I got a great deal, because I didn't pay the full $12.00.  I love that you encompass all of the careers I ever wanted to take part in from theatre to the media world. But I hate you most of all for not letting me be a part of it- any of it. I worked really hard, but you with all your will and might made sure  not to let me in. I can easily forgive the $8.00 ice cream and maybe even the $1,100 apartment that I wake up to in fear that I bathtub will fall on my head. But I cannot, under any circumstances forgive you for how you have made me feel by excluding me from everything that I loved and tried so hard to be part of. For that, I don't know if I can ever look at you the same way.  So this is the end of our journey, for now at least. If you decide to change your mind and treat me with more respect, I might consider letting you in again. Until then, know that despite all you have put me through, I still love you. You were everything I thought you would be. In the future, I hope that maybe we can put this behind us and start anew. Until then, this is it. Goodbye NYC- we had a good run.

Love always,

Dana