Cultural Encounters: My New Yorker vs. Your New Yorker

Growing up in an idyllic little New York town sixty miles north of Manhattan, unquestionably, I have lived my entire life a ‘New Yorker.’  Undoubtedly though, my idea of a ‘New Yorker’ differs from your ‘New Yorker’ and while I have been born into a family whose entire existence in America has been limited to the boroughs comprising New York City, I am quick to point out to all who inquire, that my ‘title’ applies merely to my residence in the state. Perhaps, it is because my ideas of the City have come primarily from watching Eyewitness News in the morning or listening to my dad complain about the traffic going to or from (probably both) ways to work each day. Either way, I figured that once school began I could see for myself what being the other ‘New Yorker’ was all about.

With little more than a week under my belt, the one thing that I have witnessed more than anything else is that New York is different just for being diverse, unique for being inimitable. Sure everything in New York moves a little quicker and sure, I have been to dozens of cities where the residents are friendlier, but what New York lacks in etiquette, it makes up with something more important: a common bond and attitude (like it or not) that surpasses language, appearance, socioeconomic statuses and other so-called boundaries that are supposed to divide, rather than unite. The City is, at least in my estimations (and current limited knowledge) the perfect microcosm of what our country once was, still is and always will be: united not because of our differences, but in spite of them. And while my title ‘New Yorker’ might not be the same as yours, I don’t mind, at the very least, I have it in my genes.

My New York. The train coincidentally is heading to the City.

Photo Copyright- Wikimedia – Daniel Case