careful, i’m new

field note #2

The reason I know I’m settling in is because I am becoming less careful. I no longer worry as much about being noisy or taking up too much space, or about occupying my hosts’ shower for too long in the mornings. I look in people’s eyes and embrace pronouncing words wrong or sounding funny. In the street, I dare to crack open a can of white claw and walk home drinking it (I will always be scared of the police). In the studio, I apply an extra layer of pastel and slap my hand against the velvet on the wall, to work it in. On Market Street I smile back at the pedestrians smiling at me. I purchase a Coca Cola onesie; I‘m doing America right.