I don’t remember exactly when the dream began, maybe the first time I visited New York City, but it is crystal clear.

It involves walking to pick up groceries for dinner. It is strolling by shops and laying on a blanket in the park. It is feeling the pulse of a city and knowing that I am a part of it – not just as a visitor, but as someone who knows the place intimately as a resident.

Of course, this fantasy is only something I’ve seen on television shows and movies. I have wondered a few times if this vision I have of city life is just an illusion; it’s so far from anything I’ve ever experienced living in a small town in Iowa or a suburb in Florida.

I hoped it was real.

It was this hope that prompted us to abandon the suburbs.

It’s why we chose Pittsburgh.

And now, it looks like my dream may be coming true.

On Tuesday morning, after a horrific week of hunting, we got the call that we had been approved for a three-bedroom duplex in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a part of town that is extremely walkable and sandwiched between two magnificent city parks. It is my New York City Lite.

It is my chance to live the fantasy.

I am… in awe. Overwhelmed. Counting down the days and unable to concentrate on anything else. Obsessively pinning decorating ideas.

I feel like Carrie Freaking Bradshaw without the bad boyfriends, shoe collection or cosmos.

And I know that Pittsburgh isn’t Manhattan and I know that tons of people live in cities and this is no big deal, but this life we are about to move into is so vastly different from what our reality has been and so damn near exactly what our fantasy has been – and I’m just shocked that it all seems to be turning out this way.

I can’t believe we’re doing it. We’re doing it. We’re doing this crazy, unthinkable, totally imaginary thing that we’ve only ever seen on TV.

We’re doing it.

I am the luckiest girl in the world.