My love for this city began when I was around five years old. My parents brought me to see The Lion King on Broadway, which was a pretty big deal for 5-year-old me considering we lived in the isolated borough of Staten Island. While I’m sure the show was great, I don’t remember anything about it aside from the cookie I ate while watching (which was not to my liking). I do, however, remember the trip there. Watching the shiny subway cars speed past was an incredible experience for me. I enjoyed riding them ever more so, as feeling the train car bump around and watching lights whiz by through the windows was a lot of fun. I still enjoy riding the subway today, and whenever I have the chance to get on the first car, I’ll look out the front window as the tunnel rushes by us.

Once I started making more frequent trips into the city, I realized pretty quickly that the subways, not the taxis, were the real symbols of the city. Like Manhattan’s heart, the subway system pushes people to all of its corners; each train is like a heartbeat. If you really want to get around in the city, you’ll take a train, not a taxi.

The subway is even representative of the many connections and opportunities available here. Just like you never know who you’ll connect with when you work or study here, you never know who you’ll get on a train with. Though many of us are antisocial, there are hundreds of people to meet just on a morning commute, none of them the same as yesterday. Places, too, are new connections that you might otherwise never make. I sometimes get off earlier or later than my stop, just to explore and find new things, people, and experiences.

In a way, I love the subways just as much as the city itself. They represent connectedness and possibilities of the city they sustain.

 

-Dylan K