Touchdown Midtown ????

The ride here was hellish in all the ways that plane rides sometimes are - it gave us cause to reflect on how important silent leadership is in situations of stress and how difficult the work of a stewardess in the air is. When people start running, snatching garbage angrily and speaking in a clearly distressed tone, the fear of the upcoming turbulence becomes way worse than the turbulence itself ever could be. It doesn't matter I used to fly every two weeks in my old job, or that I know all commercial flight data by heart, it never sits right with me when the cabin crew is distressed.

The impeccable acting of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in the movie adaptation of the Anne Rice novel "Interview with the Vampire" got me through it - it was likely a dual-figure watching it for me as I never seize to be fascinated by the environments, character complexity or musical prowess of it. I usually don't like it when Hollywood turns my favorite novels into on-screen experiences, but this time they did us good.

We arrived late, hit a pizza joint to grab some food and went to bed at 23:00 NYC time.

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Nevertheless, all that is a hazy memory at this point. Waking up to the sun rise over Empire State Building, sirens and "Good Morning America" in the background made us forget all about any challenges yesterday. We are here and this is what we came for. 3 women in their early thirties sharing 400 sqft in the city that never sleeps, living together for the first time in a decade again (since Sydney, Barcelona or London) and beyond the career distress we felt when we first met in high school.

In a way I'm as proud of us as I would be had I had daughters. None of us grew up in a particularly privileged or wealthy environment (depending on what you compare with ofc) but we're all here, diplomas in hand in NYC.

Mika, our resident activity planner, anesthesiologist and post-doc at NYU Langdon, on the sofa with her laptop talking away about the agenda of the day. Hannah, our full-stack developer and resident of the best nordic city CPH, seated at the table tapping the keyboard on her next blogpost, debating which restaurants we need to hit in Harlem. And me. Our mechanical engineer at the desk - feeling very thankful and obliged to capture this moment in time so that one day when I'm old I can read this back and have a laugh.

Love, A