Not only as students but as human beings, we are constantly striving for more. We want better things, we want to improve things, and therefore our eyes are always set on the ongoing horizon. A destination that can’t be reached but a goal that we keep going for. We are trained to be competitive and to look forward only at our goals, going full speed ahead and stopping for nothing.
Ever since high school, I’ve felt troubled by this notion. I am privileged enough to receive high quality education and I almost felt brainwashed into a mentality of ignorance. I was like a competitive animal, scrounging to secure a future in a world I knew nothing about. So when I came to New York City to attend college, the real world showed its ugly face along with the bright and polished shops filled with exquisitely useless trinkets. I used to always be as considerate as I could. Give money to those on the streets, help those that are lost, give my time to those people who claim to be from Greenpeace but then ask for your credit card information after a 20 minute talk. But after several scams, racist remarks, and other unpleasantries, my 15 minute walk from my station to Baruch became a 10 minute walk. Subtle, but it wasn’t like I was going any faster. My perspective had become a straight line, to Baruch and back. I no longer looked at those sitting on the streets or people needing help with this or that, I looked forward. Determined to reach my goal and achieve my dreams, whatever they were.
I find it sad how busy student lives can be. While I feel guilty for not being a good samaritan, the student life barely allows any flexibility (in between studying, interns, jobs, clubs, etc). This picture kind of portrayed the sadness I felt, it felt representative of the emotions that stirred every time I passed a homeless man, woman, or child. Our world wants to seem polished, organized, someone spent time designing that trashcan so it could be used. But what we end up is trash still on the streets. This photo may not impact you the same way it does, but a homeless woman used to always sit here. I don’t know where she’s gone but sometimes, I wish I had stopped to say hello. New York City boasts its technological and cultural prowess, but progress must be made as human beings, not machines. We need to look left and right and see the people and trash, sometimes indistinguishable, and understand that in our journey to the future, we are leaving some behind.
Hugh, I found what you wrote about this photograph to honestly be very moving. In an odd way, it relates to several thoughts that the events of the past week have brought to my mind, and it’s genuinely relieving to see that someone else I know has thought along similar lines.
As some people in our class probably know, the past week was Fashion Week in New York City. A couple of my friends who live in nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania came to the city to spectate, and a brief walk through downtown with them proved to be very revealing – and a bit unsettling for me. We were walking through Alphabet City, and were in a bit of a hurry. I attempted to shuffle them along and encouraged them to pick up their pace a few times, but after a few blocks one of them stopped me and said, almost angrily: “You do realize we’ve passed four or five homeless people in the past few minutes, right? You didn’t give any of them money – you didn’t even look at them! How can you do that so easily? Do you just…not care?”
In the few minutes we had before the event we were going to began, I tried to scrap together an explanation of how many cities discourage giving money to panhandlers, and how contributing to charitable organizations has a greater net impact, but I could see that my out-of-town friends weren’t convinced. A few hours later, as I walked down a runway wearing an outfit that costs more than most colleges’ tuition, I felt a bitter taste in my mouth from the earlier incident. In theory, being there was supposed to be a step towards a New York City dream coming true – but had I lost sight of the dreams, no, needs, of NYC neighbours? Has keeping my eyes on the “prize” – be it a finance degree, a successful career, a bigger paycheck, or another contract – narrowed my vision so much that I can’t see what’s really happening on the streets and subways of the city I, and millions of other dreamers, call home?