Very introspective and interesting. I don’t live in NY, but I’ve spent a good deal of time there, as I have several friends who do live there, and I have to admit that I’ve observed some of the same changes in them as the ones you’ve noticed in yourself. It’s surprising to me that human beings are all still so…malleable…even in adulthood. You’d think that older people like ourselves would have the necessary experience and skill to exert a little more control over the processes that change who we are on a fundamental level, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for a lot of folks (including me, I have to admit). I’m not sure if that speaks to the power of the environment you find yourself in — especially in your case, seeing as how New York is steeped in such a powerful and overwhelming aura — or to the fragility of the human psyche. Either way, it’s both really cool and really unnerving to me that our environments can have such a profound effect on who we are.

Anyways, on a separate note, are you leaving NY in the near future? And if so, do you know where you want to go or what type of place you’d like to live in next?