The constant horns, the angry drivers, the "yea, well, I'm taking your right of way from you" attitudes.
The casual walkers, the mile-long treks, the endless passerbys.
The convenient inconveniences, the impossible possibilities, the illogical desires.
Subways, the Taco Truck, parallel parking.
The city is mysterious.
It has its own charm.
Everything you expect to hate, you quickly come to love.
There is no reason, no single explanation you can come up with for why it is so alluring.
Because in all reality, none exist.
The city is crowded, expensive, unclean, and angry.
Road rage?
Mabye on a calm day...
And yet.. these detriments come to be the very factors that draw you in.
Why?
.. let me re-phrase that.
WHY?
I have no idea.
Middle America snubs its nose at the notion of New York City living..
... only because it hasn't experienced confusion for itself.
Yes, confusion.
Because that's precisely what it is:
confusing.
It's cranky, yet content.
It's busy, yet relaxing.
It's taxing, yet refreshing.
Nothing, nothing beats a view of the florescence of Manhattan's skyline at night from across the East River.
Nothing beats the Hipster Town uniqueness of Williamsburg.
Nothing beats the immense eye-of-the-storm tranquility of Central Park.
The vast differences a single mile makes are incredible.
Suburban Queens to bouncing Brooklyn.
Bouncing Brooklyn to corporate Downtown.
Corporate Downtown to commercial Midtown.
Commercial Midtown to residential Uptown.
... and then there's the Bronx.
Each and every one is essentially a different world.
The varieties are infinite.
Never would I be able to see all that the city has to show me.
It is simply impossible.
And yet, that is not a reason for disappointment.
It is a reason for hope.
For excitement.
For never would life be bland in the city.
Never would there be nothing to do.
New York, New York...
.. how I miss thee.
3 comments:
Wow. Perfectly put, if I do say so myself. And you haven't even lived here. haha I love this. I miss you. New York misses you. <3
That is exactly how I felt the month I stayed there one long weekend.
I too love the constant hum of the city but I would argue that there are just as many intricate nuances outside of the city.
Let's look at New Mexico - Alamogordo.
Slow paced with lazy days that have weeks wrapped up in mere hours. Rec leagues for all ages, community spirit in the one high school sports teams, endless gossip about the neighbor across town which is a mere two miles away.
The smells of the mesquite and creosote after the gentle rain, the angry flashes of lightning the illuminate the bones of the earth towering above the city.
Stars that twinkle in a night sky that are so vast and so numerous that one gets lost in the deepness of the universe.
The sunsets that blaze with brilliance and the moon rise that dwarfs the whole of the valley.
The laughter of a child heard above the cry of a Red Tail falcon beyond the howling of the coyote underneath the rattle of a snake's tail.
Every place in this whole world has a unique draw and pull to it ... if you know where to look and what to listen to.
But I love what you wrote - you so need to go into journalism!
Daddy thinks that you should submit this to the New York Times or maybe The New Yorker.
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