A Give For Every Take

It's been said that New York can be a lonely place, and I don't disagree in the slightest.
I've had my fair share of holing up in my rattiest of pajamas, turning on a movie, and wanting to give anything in the world to have a close friend snuggled up next to me.
But I've always believed there to be a give for every take.
And the 'take,' in New York's case, is that it's the stopping point for so many people passing through. She gives to you the chance to slurp up noodles on the corner of 34th and 6th with a friend from middle school who's seen you at your very very VERY most awkward stage in life. She brings in the kindest, wisest friend-of-a-friend-who's-slowly-become-simply-a-friend to delight in Five Guys with, months after you guys shared hamburgers in London too. She gives to you a benchside coffee date with your godsister, a girl with whom you spent your entire childhood, who you haven't seen in six or seven years at the very least. She will bring your sister to you, a sister who comes bearing Asian makeup goodies and whisks you off to manicures and Korean BBQ. NYC allows you to spend time with friends who you usually don't get to spend time with at school. And for this weekend, she's promised me a catch up with a friend I made during the most transformative summer of my life - the one after junior year of high school. Bonus? NYC winked at me and said, I'll throw in someone from the blog world too. (Stay tuned!)
Of course –and this is my very favorite– she always gives to you the opportunity to spend some good old-fashioned QT with your best friend / seasoned travel buddy and her moooooost wooooonderful mother, in the form of a good catch-up sesh over gin & tonics (we have bonded time and time again over the fact that we consider ourselves G&T girls), brunch at Sarabeth's, and a carriage ride around Central Park.
The coolest realization about all of this? By the end of the summer, I will have spent some time with at least one person from every major period of my life. Birth, childhood, adolescence, high school, summers, college. Oh, how strange it is to see that I'm both still the girl they knew back then, and yet also a whole other person now too.
(Cassandra, you're up next.)