They say America is a melting pot. People from all over the world come here to have outstanding opportunities that they wouldn’t get anyplace else. A long time ago, immigrants would come in through Ellis Island and, not sure where to go, they would stay in New York. New York is different from any other place in the world. It’s cool to just visit, but that’s not the same as actually living there.
First of all, when you visit New York, you only do the touristy things. Like walk the Brooklyn Bridge, go through the MOMA and the MET, walk through Central Park and go to Rockefeller Center. If you’re really touristy, you’ll take a trip on a double-decker bus that takes you all throughout the city. You take pictures of every pretty thing you see. (I’m guilty of still doing this, and I have been living here for 7 months.) You stay in a hotel and eat out every night, not to mention you take a taxi everywhere.
All of that is fine but you aren’t experiencing the real New York. Once you live here, you aren’t going to the museum every day or going to see things you haven’t seen before. You’ll be lucky if you feel like walking to Food Universe just to get a box of cereal and milk so you have something to eat for dinner. The city is exhausting and it takes a lot out of you, but there are days when you’ll just be walking down Madison Avenue, and you look around and realize how grateful you are for the city that you call your home.
As a tourist you don’t even venture to the top of a subway station let alone all the way down to the platform. You haven’t really lived until you have seen a huge rat scurrying along the subway tracks, or even better, the arguments and fights that break out – those are a must see. They make for great stories. After you’re grossed out by the big mammal, and you’re scared for your life because people are yelling profanity at each other, you get to squeeze onto the subway car where there is really no room to even breathe. If you have more than one layer on, I would suggest taking them off because you’re gonna be hot, even if it’s below freezing outside. The trick to getting a seat, or at least standing room on the train is to go to the very first car or the very last car, most people just stay in the middle so the first and last ones are usually empty.
The city is the most amazing place I have ever lived, granted I have only lived in two other states and the first one I moved from when I was two, but still, it’s amazing. You see so many things you wouldn’t see anywhere else. For example, you can see the tree lighting at Rock Center around Christmas time, or celebrities just casually walking around the city or the leaves changing and falling in Central Park.
People say it’s too cold here and people are mean and you have to walk everywhere. While these stereotypes are somewhat true, there’s no place like it. Buy a winter coat and you’ll be fine, you learn not to take things personally, and as for the walking everywhere, that’s what subways are for, as gross as they may be. There really is no place I would rather live at this point in my life. Everyone needs to live here at least once, if only to see what it’s like.
Don’t think twice, just do it.
