I have lived in New York city for 17 of the 18 years I have been on this planet. Before going off to college, I did not think much about it.

As much as I love D.C., the curse is that once you live in NYC, there is no city like it. While I was walking around D.C. alone one night I began to realize how quiet it was, how dark it was. I was able to see the clear sky with the stars surrounding me. I was amazed at the D.C. sight at night, but I continued to miss my home.

You have to wait 45 minutes for the C line because the subway is sometimes inconvenient. You have to squeeze through hundreds of people when walking to your next destination. You hate tourists who always walk .01 miles per hour and you have to passive aggressively say “Excuse me!” without trying to associate with the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude.

You can’t stand going through Times Square to get to work. Sometimes you feel like it would be so much nicer to live somewhere on the West Coast, like LA, where everyone has this mindset of positivity.

I just mentioned all the things that I hate about New York, but to be honest, those are the things I miss the most about being in NYC. Having to wait 45 minutes for the train allowed me to talk to the person I was with. If I had a curfew, I could say that the train was 45 minutes late. Easy. I miss the busy-ness of the city. Everyone had an agenda; they had places to go, things to do.

Perhaps I miss all these things because I grew up in NYC and most of my memories and most amazing moments have been in New York.

However, even if you just stopped by for a few days, and hate the pushing and the shoving, NYC is also perfect. Central Park, Upper East Side, Soho, Morningside Heights, etc… You never know who you’ll run into while you're walking around the city. I swear, it is a magical place.

To name a few examples:

My friend, whose ambition is to be a fashion designer, is obsessed with Project Runway. She loves Tim Gunn. LOVES. She has run into him more than 20 times. Even I have run into him more than 5 times in Central Park. My friend even asked him if he could come to her fashion show at our high school.

To her surprise, he said of course, and continued to give her his email. Although she was upset that he did not show up, he emailed her a couple days later apologizing for not making it. The Project Runway filming ran over time, which is 1000% a valid excuse.

At a certain time, I loved Connor Franta (still do). I was going to go to his book signing and meet-and-greet for my birthday. I was overly excited and couldn’t wait to meet him. However, due to the confusion of the event, I was unable to get into the meet-and-greet. Here’s the catch: I ran into him the day before on the reservoir as I was exercising. My heart stopped and I told him how much I loved him, and asked him if we could take a picture.

I’ll leave you with this example: filming. There are many movies and shows filmed in New York. I’ve crossed the street with Ben Stiller accidentally while they were filming a movie, Gossip Girl was filmed at my old neighborhood, I have served an actress while I worked at an Italian restaurant in downtown NYC.

The magic that comes with being in NYC is something that no other city can copy. It is solely a NYC concept. That is why I miss my home.