What really sets New York City apart is that anything can happen anywhere. The only constancy in New York is change. A walk down any street or avenue will lead to some sort of interesting experience, and I can say so from personal experience.
Over summer break, I went to visit my dad at his office. I really just wanted to get out of the house so I thought why not visit him? After a ride into Manhattan, I went to his office and realized I had wasted my time and reach a whole new level of boredom. I didn’t actually know what I expected to do, but I just sat there watching my dad do business. People would come, people would go. The computer was too slow to keep up with my attention span, so I told my dad that I would be going on a walk. He was hesitant, but knew I didn’t want to be there.
I left the office and started walking up 5th Ave. I figured I’ll go to the Apple store, since it’s a desirable distance and a great store. I went in and out of random stores and by the time I reached the Apple store I was thankful for boredom.
When I finally managed to pull my eyes away from the big stores I looked infront of me and saw a throng of people coming towards me, but a face stood out. I had to study it for a moment, and when it clicked I sprang up. I had always wanted to meet a celebrity, so you could imagine my excitement when I saw Ray Romano walk by. He was walking in a huge crowd so I didn’t know if it made sense or if it was that much weirder that I was the only one to notice him. I ran up to him to say, “Hi!”
He looked at me, smiled and said, “Hey, how’re you doing?”
The words came running out of my mouth. “I’m a huge fan of Everybody Loves Raymond! Can I please get a picture?”
In a friendly voice, but trying not to attract too much attention he said, “Here let me get that for you.” He took my old flip phone and tried to get a good picture. A few years ago front facing cameras were unheard of.
I thanked him and he went his way. A part of me wanted to follow him but the smarter part thought it was better to stay put. I was ecstatic! It led me to think of how in this large city there is so much going on at once that most of it seems insignificant.
P.S. I lost the picture when my phone broke. Sad life.
Your post had a consistently positive energy, showing how an average day in the city can become something memorable if you just take a different rout or decide to explore a bit. The great thing about New York is that there is always something going on, something to do, or see. I liked that you included your thought-processes during the encounter; it made the work lively and entertaining.
I enjoyed reading this post because you included so many elements of NYC in one post. From retail stores to celebrities, NYC is definitely full of excitement and constantly changing. When I’m bored, I find myself aimlessly walking around in the city also. There are so many things going on in NYC and it is really up to us to go out and explore.
This reminds me how unrealistic and surreal it was for me when I also met a celebrity on the streets of New York City. I agree with your message that even if it doesn’t seem so, there is always constantly so many things going on in the city, and I liked the way you described this specific instance to show it.