The Drive Felt Like Exhaling After Years of Holding My Breath

There is a moment when you physically feel the chapter turning —

as if the atmosphere around you rearranges its molecules in real time.

Driving away from New York with my baby asleep in the backseat, I felt my entire nervous system unclench.

I had no idea what the next ten years would look like,

but I knew I’d orchestrated the one thing every burnt-out genius craves:

my own environment.