An unspecified Patz varietal

I am no longer the newest person here. Tonight at bocce I met not one, but two, new transplants who have moved here within the last week. From the east coast! It is with much sadness, yet pride, that I passed along the "newbie" torch.

The past month has flown by, though it feels like I've been here forever. My life in New York seems like a distant memory, almost a dream. So much has happened - I've experienced so much, so quickly - that I'm starting to feel like my life in New York wasn't real (let's not even mention life in London or at Cornell before that). This is the only reality I know.














Isn't it strange how a concentrated experience in a short period of time can make a month feel as though it were a lifetime? I remember having this conversation with a friend of mine, whom I had met during a summer college program at Yale while I was still in high school. We were only there for six weeks, but by the end of that summer life on the Yale campus was all that we knew. I feel like I was born here, I remember saying. Anything before - or after - that summer just didn't seem real.

Yet, my experience has shown that just as quick as that intensity can creep up on you, it can fade. You go to a new place, meet new people and find yourself in an entirely new reality. And, suddenly, that world that seemed to you to be the only life you knew becomes just another distant memory.

It's for that reason that I constantly strive to live in the moment - because that's when it matters most.

My Aunt Shona emailed me today to tell me a story about how she had visited Napa six years ago and ate at Auberge, a place I mentioned in one of my previous posts. She said:

"I still remember the wine we had (Patz) and liked it so much that I bought a bottle when we came home and then waited too long to open it. When we opened it, it was past its prime. So enjoy the moment."

Enjoy the moment - I can't imagine any better advice. I'm no longer new here - tomorrow will be exactly one month since I arrived - and before I know it this feeling that everything is novel and exciting will begin to fade. Pretty soon this experience, like all those before it, will too be a distant memory. I'll wonder if this was real or if I just dreamt it up.

But, for now, I'll make the most of this life that I'm leading here. Reality or not, I'll take it.