One of the perks of working in the school setting is having time off that is similar to the breaks you once had as a student. This recent Thanksgiving break I took myself to New York for a few days.

In another sense of the word “break,” at the end of this past summer I experienced by first heartbreak. It feels bittersweet that the last post on my website before this one is from our summer trip to Amsterdam, just five months ago or so. And now here I am - traveling again, but back to going solo.

There’s a beauty and familiarity in traveling alone. I love exploring, setting the pace for the day, deciding in the moment what to do and where to go. While I’ve experienced many lows over the last three months and a level of grief and pain I’ve never experienced before, this brief trip to New York brought me a few days of release, of curiosity, of wonder, and of self-care.

I took a figure drawing class at the coolest studio, Happy Medium. I saw a live show at a famous jazz club called The Blue Note Jazz Club. I saw glimpses of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, then joined the most important parade - a march for Palestine. I had my Thanksgiving meal on the rooftop of my hotel in the sunshine with stellar views of Manhattan. And I got two new tattoos from a queer artist in Brooklyn I’d followed on Instagram for years.