For the past eighteen years of my life, I've lived in the small, friendly mountain town of Missoula, Montana. There are so many incredible things about where I lived: the innumerable stars at night over the backdrop of the jagged and powerful mountains, reminding me how small and inconsequential I really am; the sparkling Clark Fork River always guiding my way home; the quiet coffee shops where everyone knows my name; the theater in which I learned my first lines and performed my first dances. Missoula is home to everyone and everything I've always known and loved, and I'm going to miss it dearly.

But there's just something about New York.

I came here for the first time in April, and I immediately fell in love. Of course, being from such a small place, the move here was a huge culture shock, as it is for many of the college students who choose to start their lives here. When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed by the height of the buildings, the fast pace of the city, and the briskness of everyone's demeanor. It's easy to feel insignificant here, and to fall into the mindset that you don't particularly matter to anyone. But by the very virtue of living here, each and every one of us is a part of something so incredible. The city is like nothing I have ever experienced, and I know without a doubt that there is nowhere in the world quite like it. This city is home to artists, dreamers, writers, thinkers, mathematicians, and people just trying to find a place that makes them feel like they belong. Countless novels, poems, stories, songs, and works of art have been created by people affected by New York, and now, living in this city, I have something in common with all of them. Everyone I've spoken to here has something inside of them that I've rarely seen in anyone else; they are full of so much passion and intelligence, and although everyone has come from different homes and backgrounds and lives, we all chose to come to New York City.

So, while New York doesn't quite feel like home to me yet, there's nowhere else I would rather be. There are things that I miss, but this city somehow makes up for all of them. The river in Montana was beautiful, but from up above, the headlights at night create a shimmering stream that is gorgeous in its own right. I may no longer be able to walk into a coffee shop and have everyone know my name and order, but the anonymity of the city is so liberating that I don't mind at all. Here, I don't have to be the person everyone has always known me to be. Missoula made me who I am, but New York has already begun to show me the person I am capable of being. Finally, as much as I miss the stars, the city lights at night are breathtaking from my little room on the ninth floor, and if I look out the window upside down it's almost the same.

Not just for me, but for all of us new to the city, this is the beginning of a very important chapter of our lives. New York is going to knock us down, pick us up, and hopefully become a place all of us can think of as home.