My name is Cali Paetow. It’s actually Calisce, but that sounds pretentious. My tentative major (I’m currently undecided) is Communications with a minor in French or German. I already know a good amount of German though, so the latter would almost be cheating. I applied to the Macaulay Honors College because I knew that I loved being in New York City and that (even though it was a stretch) I had to take that chance. The only other school I applied to was SUNY Purchase, located about half an hour outside the city in Purchase, NY. Macaulay had the better location and the greater financial package so I took it. I’m from a blip of a town near Woodstock, NY. I don’t know if it was my fear of needing to drive (the public transport up there is incomplete) or my penchant for people watching, but something about the city drew me in. Ultimately, when I saw the half-scholarship from Purchase and the full-ride from Macaulay, my decision was made.
I hope to get from this seminar a better feel for the various communities of New York. I understand the most basic bits regarding pilgrims and Europeans, and the flood of Irish around the potato famine, but besides that (and reading a book by Edwidge Danticat), I’m lost. My aim for my overall college experience is to find my passion, study abroad, and graduate with a useful degree (my father got a bachelors degree in psychology and has since then spent his life bouncing between hardware stores). There’s nothing wrong with a modest salary, but I don’t want to have to worry about money every day. The only job I’ve ever done is cleaning the house for my mom and playing the viola in my mom’s wedding quartet/trio but I lack the talent and the drive to have the life of a musician. Right now I’m working as a campus navigator (tour guide), but I could see myself in public relations or in foreign affairs, or even working in TV behind the scenes. Whatever will be will be.
Brooklyn and New York City immigration to me is part of the search for a better life. In terms of my own family, a great-great-grandpa (or was it a great-great-great-grandpa?) on my dad’s side was working as an employee on a German cruise ship. After docking in New York City one day he simply neglected to get back on board and report for duty. Relatives in the city helped him establish himself and years later my grandparents moved upstate from Long Island to start a family farm. My sister and I are the first to really embrace our German heritage. We studied the language in school and each participated in two different exchange programs. We know the food, the songs, and the holidays, but I think we might be in it more for the fun than the ancestral pride!
Immigration hasn’t directly affected my life or the lives of my close peers. I only took interest in German when I quit Spanish to avoid a nasty teacher, and my sister joined in only after a year of my fussing and cajoling (the language is so much fun!). Only one of my friends was born abroad. My school district saw few changes in population or diversity. Almost the entire student body was white. This social background didn’t affect my New York City life in any tangible way. I am reserved, but that is a personality trait formed by my upbringing and experiences, and not the demographic of my hometown. My family is politically liberal (especially my vocal mother), so I see much of my world through that lens, but there were many conservative back-woods families in my town. I respect the arts and government funding of public programs (New York City is a great example). I applied to the honors program because I have financial need and, thanks to my mom, a good high school GPA. I know that my family has a long history of musicianship, but I don’t know if that existed pre-immigration. We appreciate the arts and used to travel to the city once or twice a year to visit a museum or see a show. Places in New York that are important to my family would include the Museum of Natural History and MOMA, simply because experiences there helped shape our understandings of the world around us. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of my favorite place in the city. The only image that keeps resurfacing is that of an immense oak tree on a hill in an apple orchard I visited upstate with my dad and sister one autumn. It’s not exactly tied, but I know I just love seeing trees in New York City. Give me a tree and I’m happy. My immigration story isn’t detailed or entirely relevant, but getting to America and having such vast opportunity in New York City made my life what it is today, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
last summer in Germany with my exchange partner, Feli
a Brooklyn sunset during my first semester
