On the morning of New Year’s Day, I was walking the streets of Midtown Manhattan and the lower portion of Central Park. Among the things that I was thinking was the question “how would you live your live if you knew you only had 1 more year left?” This exercise, albeit a bit morbid, forces you to consider your priorities and to crystallize what you really want.
If I had a magic wand, I would move back to New York City, surrounded by the electrifying energy of ambitious and relentless people. I would work in an architectural firm and as a lecturer on the subjects I am passionate about, keeping a foot in academia and another in the private sector. I would rent a studio in Greenwich Village, Hell’s Kitchen or the Upper West Side and fill it up with books and antiques. I would join the local New York Aquatics team. And because living in New York will demand every penny, one must compliment their income with side gigs. I would be involved in nightlife production and be a content creator sharing tips on swimming. I would spend my nights at my apartment learning new recipes or building a physical scale model of the original Penn Station, with operating trains, built-in lights and intricate cut-outs displaying every single room, to be donated for permanent display inside a new Penn Station. I would host monthly dinner with friends. I would book trips for my family so they could visit during major holidays. I would have a cat and spend the weekends with him or her, a cup of coffee, and reading books about philosophy and architecture. I would spend countless evenings at the Rose Reading Room, the Patricia D. Klingstein Library, or Avery Library writing a book on the architecture of Charles McKim’s Pennsylvania Station, uncovering the role of unknown architect William Symmes Richardson.
In summary, I would spend most of my attention producing rather than consuming, and lifting everyone around me along the way.