I have been here less than 60 days. I will never have the experience of a homegrown New Yorker, but I know enough to recognize a people living in fear. The sheer number of people in a big city can mean minor annoyances are amplified into major anxieties and New Yorkers are a people living unequivocally in fear. I was inspired by this blogger's take and wanted to add my own fears to the list:
- Unidentifiable dripping liquids. I’ve come to accept the grime on the ground, don’t let the liquid influenza fall from the sky, too.
- Seeing rats disappear into the building you are entering. Does this one really need an explanation?
- Hearing the words "Attention passengers. We are being held momentarily..." during morning rush hour. “Hostage” is the only acceptable way to finish that sentence. You are holding us temporarily hostage.
- Getting into the wrong Uber. Alternatively, getting into a car that is not an Uber at all.
- Plagues. We should probably accept that plagues are part and parcel of city living: it’s simply a matter of time before some real or imagined disease takes hold. With the recent survey of New York hospitals, it’s clear to me there will be few survivors.
- Restrooms for “paying customers only.” More infuriating than toll roads, most places in New York City require a potty tax and a bathroom code. I refuse to pay your pure-profit coffee prices! But I do really have to go…
- Driving anywhere in the city limits. I am a fearless pedestrian, and people like me are exactly the reason I will never drive in the city. Cabbies are the real American heroes, y’all.
- Power outages. Possibly more stressful than my low confidence that you will be served efficiently if i’m bleeding out in an ER hospital bed, I have even less confidence that you will fix my power before my cell phone dies. Negative confidence. You’ll find me charging my phone in the coffee shop on the other side of town, the one that won’t let me into the bathroom.
- Eye contact. With anyone with a flyer, with panhandlers, with pigeons. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!
- Times Square. Come here if you like being trapped between the congestion causing tourists and the aforementioned people with flyers. Add in the giant LED screens trying to brainwash you, aggressive costumed characters, and various naked folk running around, and you have a New Yorker’s worst nightmare. Nooooo, thank you.
What are you afraid of?
