The City that Never Sleeps

I was born in Manhattan and lived in Astoria with my grandmother until I was about 5 years old. During my year in kindergarten, my parents decided that they wanted to move to Poughkeepsie, a town that is two hours north from the city. My family felt that my sister and I would be safer there and that we would have a better education in a more suburban area. Of course at age 5, I did not really know what was going on and I was not particularly sad to be leaving the city. I was actually very excited that I would finally be reunited with my family after living with my grandmother for a few years.

 

E. B. White stated,”There are roughly three New Yorks” (698). When I read this part of the essay, I had to stop and think about which category I fell under; was it the person who was born in New York City, the commuter, or the person who moved to the city to achieve their dreams. I concluded that I fell under all three categories and in that order. I was born in Manhattan, the center of New York City and lived in the city until first grade. In a way, I do consider myself a commuter; I came to the city almost once a month with my family. White wrote a a statement about commuters that reminded me of myself, “…and works in New York, discovers nothing much about the city except the time of arrival and departure of trains and buses, and the path to a quick lunch” (699). I clearly did not work in the city, but every time my family came out, we were not there to explore the city, but rather to accomplish a job, whether that be visiting family, seeing the dentist in Chinatown, or buying oriental groceries. So when I told people like my classmates that I went to the city a lot, they thought that I was very familiar with the city and I have seen all that New York had to offer. But in reality, I knew nothing about the city. When I decided that I would attend college in the city, my mother and my sister wanted me to focus more on my surroundings when we came down so that I would know my way when I move here. Even though I have been to Chinatown so many times, I still have no clue how to go to my dentist or my uncle’s apartment building. It made me realized that every time I visited the city, I did not observe or take in any of my surroundings, I just blindly followed my mother or my sister.

 

Finally after 12 years living in the suburbs, I decided to return to the place of my birth. There was a few reasons why I wanted to come and officially move back into the city. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to be with my sister. My older sister and I are very close and when she was attending NYU, we still talked at least once a day. I couldn’t imagine going to a college that was 6 hours away in the middle of nowhere. Another reason why I chose city colleges was because the summer before my senior year, I decided that I would love to pursue a career in the fashion industry and New York City is where fashion is born. If I want to have an opportunities working in fashion, it will 99% be located in the city.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZI4zOTNIHc]

“To an outlander a stay in New York can be and often is a series of small embarrassments and discomforts…riding the wrong subway, being slapped down by a bus driver for asking an innocent question, enduring sleepless nights when the street noises fill the bedroom” (701). When I read the sentence, I actually laughed because I have experienced more than half of these awkward situations. I’m sitting here thinking why did I move into city when a MTA bus driver yelled at me for getting my card stuck in the machine during my first ride, when I got on the wrong subway and had to transfer later, and not sleeping for the first few nights when I moved in with my sister because there are bar fights happening 3 in the morning. Although New York City has made me uncomfortable a few times, it hasn’t scared me away. New York City is one of the most intimidating cities in the world, yet people keep coming back. There is something about the city that is irresistible, and it will always draw you back. It is like no other city in the world.