One month plus a little extra

It's kind of crazy that I've already been here for a month. I feel like a month is a long time being away from somewhere, but a short time being somewhere new. Every day I feel more and more settled. Every day New York gets better. And every day I keep feeling happier and more excited about this adventure. This last week I've kept little notes here and there with thoughts I've had or notable things that have happened. Please enjoy the following random moments of my life.
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I high-fived Jimmy Fallon. Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, and Miley Cyrus all made guest appearances. Miley even sang The Climb. Being in the studio audience was seriously so much fun. Crossing my fingers I get tickets to go again soon.
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I was FaceTiming Carine and Arianne while they were at Qdoba. As Carine checked out, she made the comment that she wanted to pay in exact change. "I just really want to get rid of my change..." she said to the Qdoba checkout man (I imagined that it was our favorite guy working). When she said that, I thought to myself "I never want to get rid of my change here. I love getting change. Every quarter is a quarter closer to being able to do my laundry in my building." One day I dream of being able to wash and dry my clothes in my building. I don't know, however, if that will ever beat the convenience of taking my clothes around the corner and having them returned to me washed, dried, and folded. Same thing goes for ones. The more $1 bills I have, the more dinners I can have delivered since those ones are necessary for tipping.
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I have an extremely patient and wonderful mother. Poor mom has to endure my calls of "Hi Mom! Blah blah blah blah blah me me me. Okay, love you, talk to you soon!" I promise, Mom, I will try to be better about holding a real conversation rather than just literally spilling every single thought inside my head. But I do love being able to talk to you about everything. And I do love when you answer on the first ring ;) Ooooh and I figured out why that always surprises me so much! You used to teach me, let the phone ring all the way through once before picking up to be sure that nothing goes wrong. I'm not sure what might go wrong, but I do that to this day. Even if my phone is right in front of me, I am trained to let it ring all the way through before answering.
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I don't feel like an imposter at Columbia. Before I moved and started classes, I was worried that I wasn't "Columbia material," almost as if I didn't deserve to be there. Apparently, this is called "imposter syndrome." I was extremely grateful to have been accepted and for the opportunity to attend, but was prepping myself for an excessive amount of faking it. "Fake it 'til you make it" literally got me through college. I have no doubt that the motto will continue to help guide me in this current and future endeavors. But guess what? I can keep up. My classes are challenging, but in a good way. I understand the lectures. I can complete the assignments. I can make meaningful contributions to study groups. I'm not the imposter I thought I would be. It feels like I belong here.
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Dad and I went to The National concert at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Friday. He came all the way out here to see the concert with me and I don't think words can describe how much that meant to me. I absolutely love The National and Dad is the one who introduced me. Dad found past setlists and we did our homework to make sure we knew all the songs they were likely to play. I noticed that my absolute favorite song of theirs (and one of my all-time favorite songs) was rarely played and I immediately tweeted at them pleadingly asking if they would play that song. Guess what? They played About Today and it was beautiful. Who knows if they actually saw my tweet and made their decision because of it, but let's just say that they did. 😉 Their last song was played truly acoustic with the amps turned off, the entire band standing at the front of the stage, and The National and entire audience singing Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks along together. That is a moment I never want to forget. There was something so intimate and special about it even with 14,000 people in the audience.
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It happened. I got smashed in the subway doors trying to hold them open. Not gonna lie, I am a bit bruised...but I'm glad we both got in, Dad :)
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"Use today to make tomorrow better." -today's Sunday School teacher
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Haley, Sarah, and me

Forest Hills Stadium aka the old US Open stadium aka venue of bands like The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel,
the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dyaln.

I spy Manhattan.

Pre-show.

❤️

This was funny.