"Welcome to New York, it's been waiting for you," Taylor Swift sings in her hit song "Welcome to New York." On one beautiful March day, I listened to this song on repeat as the Megabus was driving me to New York City for the first time ever. After only ever seeing this city in pictures, movies, and television, I was beyond excited to experience it for myself. I'm not sure what I expected, but Taylor Swift was right. This place has been waiting for me.
Getting off that bus and immediately being shoved into a foreign city was extremely scary. No one could have prepared me for the swarm of people that were rushing by everywhere and anywhere, and I thought for sure we were going to get lost on the way to the hotel. Thankfully, we made it with little to no issues after almost running into the people walking by with my suitcase. My mom and I wanted to start our New York journey right away, so we headed to Times Square. Let me tell you, the pictures do not do it justice. The first time you see all those lights, people, the huge stores (there is a three floor store dedicated to M&M's), it takes your breath away. Times Square is probably one of the only places in the world where it looks like daytime at night because of the huge, lit up billboards that take over the entire area. I didn't know it then, but I fell in love with this city that first night, taking in all the sights that Times Square has to offer.
In just five days, we jam packed our schedule with as many New York activities as possible: The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, 9/11 Memorial, seeing "Wicked" and "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway, tours of Radio City Music Hall and NBC Studios, going to the top of Rockefeller Center, and taking a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park. It was exhausting, but these five days were some of the best of my life. All of a sudden, the constant amount of people always walking on the sidewalks didn't seem so scary. I felt like I knew what I was doing and that maybe, someday, I might want to call this crazy city home. If you asked me at the beginning of our trip if I would have wanted to live there, I would have said, "No way". Now, I can actually picture myself there in 10 years. Something about this place changed me, and I think it's that it gave me the confidence to be whoever I want to be. New York City is a place where you are such a small part of a huge whole, yet you can choose however you want to make yourself be a part of that whole. There are so many people there that no one is watching your every move like you think they do, and that has inspired me to go out into the world and just be myself, and do whatever I want without caring what anyone else thinks. I know there are always going to be judgmental people, but I promise most people will keep on walking by without giving you a second glance, like New York natives on their way to work.
It may seem silly that a trip full of touristy activities led me to write all of this, but I think about New York City every single day. I see myself walking down the streets on my down days and think about how happy I was there. I think about the confidence I felt in my final days of my trip and how I felt like I could take on the entire city. I love having that confidence to get me through tough times, and I know the memories will always make me smile. To the city that never sleeps, thank you for showing me all you have to offer, and for giving me my epiphany about being the person I want to be for me and no one else. I know you are still waiting for me.
