It has been lovely knowing you.

It has been lovely knowing you.

A month separates me from graduating grad school and becoming a professional at the graduate level. It has been lovely knowing you.

I took a flight in August back in 2018. I flew to America with an i20 and F1 visa. I stayed with my cousin for a month who might not have known I was going to stay with him for a month. I love him. But he’s too stiff.

I dated this girl back then who was in New York. She helped me ride the subway, cross the street and make a bank account. That helped me getting a phone number and have google maps on my phone. I did get an apartment eventually. I love that too. It was in a red brick building in Bushwick with the subway station about 3 blocks away. I usually walked to it with a coffee in hand. Sometimes I’d stop on the deli and buy an energy drink.

I loved it.

I felt for the first time I had I stepped away from what I’d always known of myself and started to grow and then know myself.

I came back to Pakistan for two years after the first semester and usually told people I was in grad school when asked. I came back to the USA in 2021. Right in the middle of the pandemic.

It has been lovely knowing you.

I dated someone else then and attend classes on zoom. I drew madly with ballpoint pens and went shopping a few times. Ate at local restaurants and cooked a little.

Finally my girl friend left and I spent the summer alone in New York. I drew and walked and went home too for a few weeks.

Winter came but I didn’t buy a new jacket. I perfectly liked the one I had. I walked hard on the side walk and made the largest and most ambitious works of my life. I liked critique and liked the colleagues. Some classes were online but that didn’t bother me.

Masks were mandatory mostly and the subway closed at 2 am. I started getting closer to another group of people and they became fond of me. I mostly enjoyed myself.

Now sit 5 large canvases in my studio with drawn out scenes of the crowd being awaited to be painted. Critiques are done. Writing mostly taken care of. 4 years in art school. It has been lovely knowing you.