Say ‘Yes’ in 2024

This New Year’s Eve I found myself on the rooftop of a three-story house in Brooklyn watching the fireworks explode over The Statue of Liberty.

You never know where saying ‘yes’ can lead you.

Here we are, five days into the new year, and I suppose most people’s resolutions about reading more or exercising more have already been trashed. So may I offer a new resolution to try.

For the rest of 2024 try saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’ especially to things that might be scary or uncomfortable.

Here’s what can happen: A couple of months ago an old friend of my wife’s contacted her asking if we’d be interested in pet-sitting her 10-year-old Boston terrier for two weeks over the holidays at her apartment in Brooklyn while she was away.

Two weeks? Of being in New York City for Christmas and New Year’s? What about our house, our animals, our jobs, the kids, the cold? The cost of plane tickets?

Both my wife and I were intrigued with the idea but almost as quickly dismissed it as unrealistic.

But we made the mistake of telling the kids.

Please, please they begged. We can make it work, they said.

You don’t have to go, send us up there, they said After not fully thinking it through we said ‘yes,’ we’ll do it.

Then the real work began of trying to re-arrange the schedule of seven people’s lives (yes our daughter’s college roommate wanted to join us in the adventure too). We had to figure out when certain people could go up there and when did they have to be back for work (big thanks to my boss Regina Keilers on this one for insisting I couldn’t miss this opportunity). Could our son make up his freshmen final exams if he missed the final two days of the semester? Did my parents in fact want to adopt our bearded dragon for two weeks? Did my sister really want to drive out to our house to feed the dogs daily?

People kept saying yes. Finally we were off, flying out in three different shifts based on when we could get away. But once we got up there it was one of the most interesting adventures of my life. The apartment was in an amazing part of Brooklyn, situated between Hispanic and Chinese neighborhoods, and just a block from Sunset Park, which afforded the most amazing views of the Manhattan skyline.

For the twelve days I was there, we embarked on wonderful outings to see New York in all its holiday glory. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, went to Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ate noodles in Chinatown and dessert at the oldest bakery in Little Italy. We went to Coney Island and walked around the mostly empty boardwalk. We rode the rickety nearly-century-old Cyclone roller coaster there and ate hot dogs with grilled onions at the original Nathan’s.

We solemnly gazed at the 9-11 Memorial and took pictures in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. We played with toys at FAO Schwarz (America’s oldest toy store) and got blinded by the flashing billboards of Times Square.

We rode the subway everywhere, and in between walked about 6-7 miles a day, and almost always felt safe. We tried bagels with lox and Honduran street food so spicy it brought tears to our eyes.

In Washington Square Park we watched a protest rally right next to a homeless guy who had a group of trained pigeons at his beck and call.

We saw the Seinfeld cafe and the Soup Nazi stand – and ate a black and white cookie and a slice of chocolate babka.

We walked through holiday markets and on the Hi-Line. We rode the Staten Island ferry and rented bikes in Central Park. When you don’t have to pay for lodging, New York suddenly becomes an affordable city to spend some time in. The people who owned the building we were staying in were so nice they invited us to their New Year’s Eve party and then took us up on the roof for that midnight view of a lifetime.

Tuesday we said goodbye to Copper, the dog who had started this whole crazy adventure, and flew home. We’d had two great weeks taking care of her, and she had become like part of the family.

Since we’ve been back I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy it would have been to just say, no, let’s have a relaxing holiday break at home. But I hope that next time you are asked to get out of your comfort zone, you say ‘yes’ too. No telling where that might lead you in 2024.