My emotions rise at your name, I feel my stomach fill with energy, and my mind races with possibilities. I remember the first time I met you coming out of that long tunnel from New Jersey. The many people, wide streets, and honking cars filled my mind with stimulation. I remember the many buttons on building doors, and the thin wooden-floored hallway to where my sister lived.
As I’ve grown into this business world, I’ve come to respect your prowess and excellence. The kind of respect that your name brings, and the personality you give to your inhabitants. I often think of a customs agent at one of your airports a few years ago, and how he oozed confidence, class, and calm. A lesson in how you sharpen people.
More recently we reconnected on an adventure of mine to attend an event in your heart. The rush of it still fills my memory. The criss-crossing roadways of your airport, the drive over that white bridge as the lights in millions of windows twinkled, and how your traffic at 11pm couldn’t discourage me. As I entered my friend’s room he had nothing but a bed, metal stand-up closet, and empty walls, I was struck by how small it was. I slept on the floor that night, giving him space and thinking about how you must either crush people into their rooms or shoot them out into the world.
My day began early as I walked away from your buildings that scrape the sky and into the splotch of green that is your heart. The fresher air, quieter noise, and my friends faces that Saturday morning energized me. As the event began I met a woman and in the corners of your cafe’s, subways, and under the sun’s rays I got to know her. At 2am on Monday I walked her back to her apartment and said ‘see you later’.
On the plane I was full of emotion unlocked by a conversation about letting down walls and I had to get those feelings out of me. I wrote a poem as I looked out over your skyline wondering how I would indeed see you and her again. I couldn’t get the emotion out of me fast enough, and even when I did, my gut told me ‘go for her’. Despite some logic, and many miles, in the last 264 days she and I have shown that when there is a why strong enough, you can achieve any how.
Now, that how is a move to you.
However, there are other gravities that have pulled me to you. There is an essence of excellence that enters my mind when I think of you. The layers of art, innovation, diversity, and history that make up your jungle tell me ‘this is the melting pot to jump into.’ Like a kiln I know some people explode when heated by you, others crack under your pressure, but some will be hardened into art.
For that reason, I am coming to you as clay comes to a kiln. I have some substance, I have some shape, and now look for the heat that solidifies me, glaze that makes me glisten, and upper shelves reserved for work crafted with deep love.
I do not wait for heat, nor do I use hope as a strategy, but if you will humor me for a moment, let me pray and visualize.
Let this experience not add layers on top of me, but rather add to me. I dream that your long blocks, strong people, and boundless action sharpen me further into a formidable man. I dream that I will become more direct, more loving, deeper, more specific, and more wise to the ways of the world.
I see my bias to action growing stronger still, and my taste sharpening from your diverse cultures, smart people, and innovative products. I see my climb up in this world to be from building my own ladder rather than playing some status game. Know that I will stay strong in this pursuit should you tempt me. Let craft, thrift, and love be my compass towards the crowds, my name spelled loud in the papers, and my past self wow-ed.
I set no expectations for when I leave other than that I have created constantly and loved fully. I will compete only against myself and my abilities, for those are the pursuits that are most creative and valuable.
From my soul,
James Floyd
