Brian Degraw

I was having pretty bad anxiety attacks and stuff, and I think a lot of it had to do with my physical environment. Deep down I’ve always had a pretty strong connection with nature, but I’ve suppressed it for so long while living in the city. I think it caught up to me. I started really bugging out and needing wide-open space. So it was that simple. That and social anxiety. I felt like I was existing too much in nightlife.

I feel the change. I feel the relationship with New York changing. It’s a personal relationship you have with the city when you move there. I definitely romanticize the early 2000s. As much as I prefer the city then as opposed to now, I’m sure if I were 23 and I moved to the New York of right now, I could have the same exact experience. I don’t really hate the cleaning up of New York, even though it’s not my preferred version of New York.