“Why Buffalo?”

It seems to be everyone’s favorite question for me these days. People from back home. People from my new home. People in general. “Do you have family here?” “Did you move for a job?” “Is there a boy?” Honestly, I can’t blame them for asking. I get it. I mean, why would a 23-year-old girl up & move to a place she has no ties to whatsoever? Let alone Buffalo, NY. And my answer is still a bit hazy. Even to myself. Or maybe “hazy” isn’t the right word, but rather, “eclectic & all-over-the-place”. You’d think I have my elevator pitch down by now too — my lighthearted, 30 second spiel about that one thing that led me to the City of Good Neighbors — but I don’t. It changes every time. Sometimes I tell them I wanted to be close to Canada. Sometimes I tell them that I was looking for a city with a sense of community to make moving to a new place feel more like home. Sometimes I tell them rent was cheap. Sometimes I tell them all of the above. It depends on the person & it depends on what I feel most strongly about in that moment. The bottom line is, there’s truth to every reason, but there will never be just one thing that brought me here. That being said, here’s the story of how I ended up in Buffalo:

It was the week before Thanksgiving of 2023 & I was itching to get out of Raleigh. Lucky for me, I was only a few days away from skipping town & joining some friends in Denver to celebrate my favorite holiday (yes, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, the only day nationally dedicated to food, gratitude, & cinematic-grade family drama — NEXT) since they couldn’t get off for work to spend it with their families. But I was looking for a more permanent escape than just that week. At that time, I knew only a few things for sure. I knew I was a few months away from getting my bachelors. I knew I had blown most of my savings on cosmetology school, so starting out on my own wouldn’t be the comfiest of financial moves. I knew I needed to be somewhere else. And I knew I just needed to make a decision on where I wanted to go.

Honest confession: I’m a gluttonous gal who wants to do, see, & try it all. Everything glitters & has gold to me. I want to be everywhere with everyone doing everything. All at once. But I’m not omni-present/scient/potent — any of the omni’s. I’m not God. And thank God for that, because this world would crash & burn if I was. With that being said, you can imagine how difficult it is to make a life decision for myself when everything seems like a good option. And I didn’t have anything or anyone narrowing down my choices. There was no set job offer, boy, or lifestyle leading me in any direction. I could go anywhere. Boohoo, “the world is my oyster”, right? Life’s tough. It took me way too long to realize that it wasn’t a matter of having so many options that I had to choose the perfect one; it was the fact that I had so many options that I couldn’t go wrong no matter which one I chose. Duhhhhh. God, I can be so dim sometimes (haha, “dim sum”). So, there I sat, packing my bags for Denver, — daydreaming about the stuffing & mashed potatoes in my near future — racking my brain for even the slightest something to tell me where to go. An impetus, an inkling, a cookie crumb, a sign — something! It could’ve been a piece of dog crap in the shape of New Mexico for all I cared. I just needed the smallest dose of purpose to point my eyes towards one place so I could lock in & propel myself towards it. And that’s when it happened. I prayed.

“God? I don’t really know what’s going on. And that’s just about all I can bring to the table at the moment. What’s new though? I’m confused, antsy, & about to crawl out of my skin right now. I need to get out of here, but I don’t know where. I just need something. Literally anything, to point me towards anywhere. So, I’m putting you on the hot seat & giving an ultimatum. By the end of this trip, I want to know where I’m moving. And I need a sign. In whatever form you please. It could even just be my delusion disguising itself as a sign to trick me into making a decision. I don’t care. Just something. Thanks in advance & I’ll see you in the mountaintops!”

Artful, right? And on that note, I was off. Airplane. Denver. Friends. Thanksgiving. Montañas. Family. Snow. Airplane. That about sums up the trip. It was awesome, by the way. Thanks for asking. And in the midst of the awesomeness, I had plenty of sound conversations with sound people about all-things life, to bring me to the conclusion that I always seem to circle back to:

Nothing’s permanent & it’s not that deep. Calm down.

Wiser & more eloquent than the Dalai Lama, Billy Joel, & the Pope combined… so, with me being confident that I was going to be alright once again (we have this pep talk at least 3x a week), I could enjoy my time with my friends & all of the beautiful distractions that Denver had to offer. Mountains, killer bagels, & a whole lot of dogs that needed to be pet. Time flew & suddenly it was my last day in-city. I ended up spending it with my great aunt — Grauntie Gini. She’s peace in human-form & never stops feeding me. Doesn’t get better than that. Grauntie Gini & I spent much of our day driving together. It’s my favorite thing to do with her. She’s such good car company. Sweet, calm, hilarious, unrushed, great music taste, uplifting, and makes as many wrong turns as me. We drove. We laughed. We chatted. We made an absurd amount of U-turns. And somewhere in between it all, she told me a story about my grandma, her sister, “Gooma”. I’ll tell it from my perspective.

Gooma (my grandma) loves all-things nature & photography. And when they’re combined, you’ll always find her right in the thick of it. I remember growing up, she used to be big into animals, going to seminars, waking up at the crack of dawn to see if she could catch a glimpse of a black bear in the quiet of day, or volunteering to protect sea turtle nests from the coyotes on the beach. To say she was “big into animals” might’ve been a disrespectful understatement. Sorry, Gooma. I’m running out of words here. Animals are still, very much so, a current love she still has & will never lose, but I’ve begun to notice her growing infatuation with the sky in recent years. The northern lights, the satellite, the space shuttle, meteor showers, the eclipse. The eclipse… the Solar Eclipse. She’s seen it before. Even traveled all the way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to get the perfect picture while it was in totality. Seeing the eclipse in totality just means it’s the most optimal sighting of the sun & the moon magically collaborating. There’s a narrow line of totality that only a handful of places in the world get to see this remarkable phenomenon at its ideal state. You get the full experience, which makes for the perfect snapshot if you’re committed enough. And Gooma got it in Jackson Hole, 7 years ago.

August 21st, 2017. The most recent solar eclipse. April 8th, 2024. The upcoming solar eclipse. August 23rd, 2044. The next solar eclipse.

20 years until this happens again. Not to get morbid, but this year’s eclipse could likely be the last of Gooma’s lifetime. So, what does a Gooma do when the sky is in its prime condition, begging for her attention? That little lady grabs her camera & goes to appreciate it. And where was she going to appreciate this natural anomaly?

Buffalo, New York.

That’s right. Full totality right here in the chicken wing capital of the world, baby! And at this point (on my Thanksgiving excursion), for whatever reason, Buffalo was on my “Places to Move” list that I hadn’t made up my mind about yet. But that’s distracting from the story. We’ll get back to that. I didn’t know it at the time, but Gooma had already booked her trip to Buffalo back in 2023, nearly a year in advance to go see the eclipse over Niagara Falls. Flights. Hotels. Companions (Grauntie Gini included). And I had not the slightest clue about it. But life happened. Things & people fell through. And Gooma cancelled all reservations & hopes of witnessing the eclipse at its finest. A few months passed, everyone & their mother got wind that they needed to be in Buffalo on April 8th to witness the eclipse, and suddenly flight prices were through the roof & hotels were $1000 a night.

I was crushed, hearing Grauntie Gini tell me all of this. Family, chocolate, & nature were all Gooma needed to lead a content life. She never asks for anything and always gives freely. So, to hear that she took a shot to the “nature” piece of her trinity, hurt me to say the least. My hurt for her lasted for all of 3 seconds before the thoughts started floating around…

“$1000 a night? That’s as much as rent! Wait, I wonder what Buffalo’s rent is. Woahhhh, I can get a place for less than $1000? In this economy? Haha, wouldn’t it be funny if I moved to Buffalo & paid a thousand dollars a month instead of a thousand dollars a night & had Gooma come stay with me to watch the eclipse? Hold on. Buffalo is on my list already. And that actually makes a lot of sense. And it’s the last day of my trip. Oh my god, is this my sign?”

November 25th, my last day in Denver, these were the thoughts running through my mind. January 19th I moved into my Buffalo abode. Two days & Gooma will be by my side, watching the moon pass perfectly in front of the sun, right over Niagara Falls.

My friend Bart said to me, “Delaney, the stars & the universe are literally aligning for you to be in Buffalo.” He’s a poet. His tongue has golden verbiage dripping off of it 24/7. Don’t be surprised that he’d say something so beautiful. But is it true? Is Bart right? Did the stars & universe conspire to have me be here? I don’t know for sure, but it makes me smile to think so. That something bigger than closing my eyes & throwing a dart at a map could tell me where to plop down & live my life. It gives me a sense of sureness & guidance while I’m aimlessly wandering these Buffalonian streets.

“All roads lead to Buffalo,” is one of the answers I’ve been pulling out of my hat when people ask why I moved here. And while we laugh at their cheesy, new slogan I gave them & let conversation drag along, I catch myself looking back at those words & realizing that, for me, it’s kind of true. I could’ve veered off onto any of the endless roads ahead of me. You heard my dilemma. The world was my oyster. Yet I’m here. In Buffalo. Exactly like I’m supposed to be. And I cannot wait to be sitting next to my Gooma, eating chocolate with our solar shades on.