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I began to list all the reasons I had for never wanting to move back home and live a small-town life like my mother

1 You don’t want to run the family diner I’ve run the fa it forever, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d always thought it’d be

2 You think small towns are small for a reason, in scope and in size The size was small, but I’d found this summer that small didn’t mean limited

3 There are no opportunities in Bailey Falls for a classically trained chef who doesn’t want to work in a traditional restaurant environment Zombie pickles Jam Class Potential opportunity at Bryant Mountain House And the idea that’d been percolating since the Fourth of July: an Airstreaeles and redeem your whipped creaher Did LA beat me? Worst-case scenario? Yeah, it beat h part I’d never shied away froht if one corner wasn’t willing to participate, right? I’d likely alonder what if, and ould have happenedBut who didn’t look back, revisit, and wonder about past decisions? The question was, could I live with knowing that Mitzi St Renee and her Mean Girls had won?

Cortlandt

Peekskill

Manitou

Somewhere between Manitou and Garrison, I had a sudden realization: someone like Mitzi St Renee alins And you can’t live your life fighting against everyone else’s expectations And sometimes the deck is stacked, and people with power over your career are assholes, and there’s nothing you can do about that

Excited for the first ti ainst the floor as if that would speed the train along faster The Hudson sparkled blue on e hoorgeous view

Picturesque toith tiny train stations, within easy distance of the grandest city on the planet, filled with people who chose to live a world away just an hour up the Hudson The bright lights and the fast pace were close enough if you wanted it, but far enough away that you could neverendless opportunities that I’d never bothered to see, to an opportunity with a certain farhter I only hoped that opportunity was still available to ot off And drove straight to the farot to Maxwell Far for Leo’s long and lean fra Trees T-shirt came around the corner, but it turned out to be one of his interns

People who knew me and knew ofby the way they said only hello and kept on walking, they knew I’d left hi in the ot that

I headed into the farm store, but no Leo I checked the barn, I checked the silo, and I checked the kitchen garden out back No Leo

"Looking for my dad?" I heard fro on a wheelbarrow, sorting seed packets

"I a down

"How are you?" she asked pointedly I reminded myself that she was only seven years old But based on my actions lately, likely years ahead of me emotionally "I heard you went away"

"You did, huh?" I asked, wincing a bit "I’h I just went into the city for a day or so"

"Youthe seed packets, she finally answered, "I have--it’s nice Grandh! It’s fun running up and down the hallways and riding the elevator, but she was le button"