Manhattan, Friday:

    

On Friday’s, I come to Baruch in the morning for the Friday section of my math class which ends at 10:20. After my class, I usually dart to the bus stop to get on the express bus back to Staten Island. This time I didn’t, I thought hey it’s Friday and an adventure never hurt anyone. I walked out of Baruch’s Vertical Campus through the main entrance on 24th Street as I normally do. I began to walk up towards Park Avenue South and I saw the homeless man who’s sign was featured in my photography project. I looked at his sign, briefly thought about the instagram assignment and walked on towards Madison Square Park. I walked through the park heading towards the uptown R train. It’s finally getting cold I thought to myself and internally promised I would start wearing hates to keep my head and ears warm even though, I never do. I walked into the uptown R station and took the train up. The train stopped for an extended period of time at 34th Street so, I got off. The platform I had gotten off onto was relatively empty and the only sounds came from the departing train.

I walked up the stairs and immediately I was greeted by a sound that I knew was a violin from my many years of musical training. I walked all around to find the source of this music, going right, left, and right again. Finally I saw the woman who was playing right near the entrance to the Downtown B,D, F and M train platform. I stopped and leaned against a pole with a Victoria secret advertisement on it, and listened to the woman playing her violin. She was middle aged and her playing was physically soft but the sound she created could fill rooms, and it did. I gave her a dollar while she playing as I thought about my musical career and how I love to play for people. I finally entered the downtown platform that I had been standing near and got on the F train that had just come. I couldn’t decide what stop to get off at so I chose 2nd Avenue, I like even numbers, it seemed like sound logic.

I got off as 2nd Avenue and followed the signs for the Houston Street, Allen Street exit, I had never been here. When I exited, I was welcomed with a crowd of people. They were clearly tourists, huddled around a map, looking at subway lines and pointing to street signs. One woman almost stopped out of the crowd to ask me for directions but then quietly stepped back in. From the exit I headed towards Stanton Street (pictured above) and took a right and headed into what seemed like a park with basketball courts and a play ground for children. There were a few teenage boys playing basketball and I quickly remembered the basketball courts at my high school and seeing the boys and girls playing there. Across from the basketball courts I saw something that caught my eye, an overfilled garbage can that clearly needed to be attended to ( pictured above). I thought about how it was something I would’ve photographed in my photography series. I thought about how the boys playing basketball ignored it even though it was right next to them and how the bystanders also ignored it. I thought how this was just another factor of our everyday lives, trash that was not being attended and producing waste much faster than it can be removed.

Immediately across the street, something I saw when I picked my head up from photographing the garbage can, was a mailbox ( pictured above) It caught my again because again, it was something I would have used for my photography project. I looked at all the graffiti on it in all the different colors and began to think how it was drawn on as if it wasn’t important to us anymore. I thought after this about our electronic society and how we use mail now to only deliver packages that we ordered online. I thought about how people used to write their thoughts on paper and now our thoughts are all in texts floating around somewhere in the digital cloud. As I thought about the cloud, I looked up at the actual clouds and realized that it would be getting dark very soon and that it was probably time to head home.

 

Sunday in Staten Island:

 

 

 

 

On Sunday’s, I work at my neighborhood bakery that has been around since 1892. I had been going to this bakery since I was a child and knew everyone that worked there, it was a staple of our neighborhood. After leaving work at 6PM even though it felt like 10PM by how dark it was outside, I decided to take a detour home instead of taking my 5 minute straight walk home. From the bakery I walked straight down Arthur Kill Road instead of my usually right on Gurley Avenue. I walked by some houses, houses I had seen frequently when driving by them to go places. These houses always gave me an unfamiliar yet familiar feeling. I knew them by appearance but I never knew the people inside, if they had been the same people for years, I wouldn’t have known, I didn’t know their stories or where they came from. In front of one of these houses which I noticed was close to the corner of Arthur Kill Road and Elverton Avenue was a campaign sign for Max Rose for Congress( pictured above). This is seemingly normal but, not for South Shore Staten Island, I live in a conservative neighborhood and my area’s politicians have always been strictly Republican so, this sign gave me a little hope and made me think about change and betterment for my community. As I kept walking straight towards Colon Avenue I was looking down while listening to fun.’s Some Nights album and I noticed someone’s home and I noticed their tiny entry area that seemed to be extremely worn out ( pictured above). While the rock was rust colored and cement colored I was focusing on the tiny pieces of nature underneath. The grass was bright green under the light and the bright red leaves stood out from the other crumpled brown ones. I started to think about nature, about seasons, about the quick passing of time and how it truly waits for no man. I thought about how I just started my first semester of college and how it is already over. Lost in my reflective thoughts, I hadn’t realized that I had walked all the way back home.