It’s the first night of the rest of my life and the city slowly grows dark. I am in my closet of a hotel room at the YMCA with my minimally channeled TV, lack of enough light sockets to even plug-in my alarm clock, listening to horns out in the street and waiting for the new episode of Intervention to come on. Don’t think I’m complaining though – not at all! I see this as nothing less than an adventure. It’s honestly exhilarating in this minimalist environment whose hollow halls echo with more foreign languages than I can identify. This must be what my brother, Andy, felt like in his various youth hostels as he backpacked across Europe a few years ago as I looked on with a loving envy. This is my little taste. Alone in NY, nervous, anxious, excited, and eager to see what tomorrow will bring.

I have to be at Columbia University’s Psych Inst bright and early at 9 am tomorrow morning. It’s an oddly shaped building right on the Hudson river near the George Washington bridge. 1051 Riverside Drive will be my home for approximately the next 3 months. For the first night or two I will be bedding down in what is commonly known as the “quiet room” next to the nurses station in our skinny girls wing of the 2nd floor until a real bedroom complete with a real roommate opens up. It wont be long though, I’m promised.

First thing on the agenda when I deboarded the train was to catch a cab and haul myself, with my heavy bags in tow, out to the Inst for a brief tour and meeting with the women in charge of my intake process. I feel like I know them even before we meet face to face due to the lengthy screening that has been my main priority for the last few weeks.

The Inst is what it is. It’s a hospital essentially, not glamorous, not like Remuda, but it looks assuredly as though it will serve the purpose I am here for. It looks like its going to take things seriously and I know that is what I need. Time will tell and I am planning on taking as much from this experience as I can manage. It wont be easy but it will be right and, for that, I am excited.