My visit to the Tenement Museum expanded my view of New York’s past. Prior to the visit, when I thought of life in New York’s tenements, I thought of the tenements themselves; the cramped living spaces, the lack of bathrooms and and the increased risk of disease. My thoughts of the people in those tenements didn’t extend far past “those poor people”. Seeing the inside of the tenements; the elaborate ceiling made by the original owner, the commentary from the woman who once lived there as a child, and the cabinet her father made that was different from all others, it showed me a level of intimacy about tenement life that I never really thought about before. When I thought of such large families having to share such a small space, I imagined it as being smelly and cramped. I never thought that living in such close proximity might also create the possibility of bringing them closer together. The stories I heard made me see tenement life more as a story and less as a set of statistics. I thought a getting a better experience of tenement life would depress me, but instead, it made me see tenement life as happier and even made me feel a bit more connected with people of the past. It showed me that even when life isn’t easy, there are still ways to make happy memories with one’s loved ones. I now wonder if people in the future will look back on my time period, seeing it as desolate, despondent and outdated, not fully realizing that for us, in spite of what statistics might indicate, we were still able to find happiness.