It was something in the air. Perhaps it was the arrogance, the stank of commercialism, or just the smell that is New York. After spending a few months short of two years in New York, I was tired of it. Two years of New York starts with excitement and ends in disgust; intermingled with small ridiculously expensive apartments.

It took a while to realize I had made a decision to end my plans in New York; for those of you who don’t know, I was going to The School of Visual Arts for Photography, retouching photographs professionally, and building my portfolio shooting model tests. I schleped a great deal of web design talent and plans to go to the big city. After all of this, I can’t tell you how much I miss the web, design, and code.

When the time came to really commit to altering my plans, it felt better than anything ever had before. You don’t realize how easy you can lie to yourself until you decide to stop.

I decided to move back to Detroit and continue with school. I planned on getting my MBA after art school, but I’m not going to be pursuing that more proactively, by getting my bachelor’s in business as well.

Everyone is surprised. Why would you leave such a great place? Hugh Macleod explains it best. Twice.

The answer is, there are so many answers. But again Hugh Macleod explains it best:

Nobody moves to New York just in order to survive…

…of course that’s what most of them end up doing…

In the midst of all these thoughts, I awoke one night to a heart that was beating somewhere around 200 bpm. It was jumping out of my chest. I was scared… I went to the ER. They kept me for not one or two, but four nights. Four nights in the hospital is four nights too long. It pretty much sealed the deal. Hospitals have a real way of knocking a little sense of reality in to you.

I think more than anything I learned what I really want in life. I realized that when you can have anything you want, anything, you figure out pretty fast what really matters: family, friends, and love.