'I remember the ever-present feeling that I might collapse': the art of moving home and slowing down

The stress and pace of New York made me return home to Ireland. The experience helped me re-evaluate how I wanted to live my life, says Emily Kielthy

Emily Kielthy in New York City

UPON returning home from a year living in New York, I read ‘Goodbye To All That’, a 1967 essay by Joan Didion. It was about her experience of vacating ‘the city that never sleeps’ in favour of much-needed rest in California. Didion loved everything about New York, until one day she found herself crying on a street corner and riddled with stress.

For one year, I lived far out in Brooklyn, where the rent was cheap and the subway ran above ground. I commuted by train for two hours each day, standing pressed against others like a sweaty sardine. On the weekends, I crashed with friends, who lived close to our favourite bars in the West Village, and I arrived home Sunday evening to find that, finally in my own bed, I was still unable to sleep.