Herb Terns’ daughter finds some offseason enjoyment on one of New York’s beaches at Moreau Lake State Park.

I wait for them to finish. The friends and family who have left New York try to convince me I should also move — as if their new state offers some type of bounty on former New Yorkers they’re hoping to collect. I usually don’t hear the positives about where they’ve gone, just the negatives about where I remain.

The dynamics of these conversations are fascinating. People try to open my eyes to how miserable I should be living here. It’s as if they think if only they could get the proper facts through my thick New York skull and into my dim New York brain, I’d realize how misguided I’ve been about living in New York. Like a fool, I’ve been happy when I should have been miserable.

If you’ve read other sections of this paper, you already know New York has been losing population. That outward migration is a problem........

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