A Love Affair with the City

A Love Affair with the City

There was not one single moment that defined me. Rather, it was a place that shaped me into the person I am today. New York is a city where culture creates everything, and that cultured created me. I’ve had a love affair with this city. Since I fell into its arms, I have been enamored with the edge of east village, the frenzy of midtown, the reserve of the Upper East Side. Walking down the street, I fall for every dusty bookstore, for every Ray’s Pizza, for each old sneaker hanging over a Brooklyn telephone wire.
I had visited New York several times before she truly spoke to me. I spent a week at Barnard College studying “The Art of Attention,” a writing class that focused on observing the city as inspiration. I spent one afternoon in a Hungarian bakery in West Village, one morning laying in Bryant Park, and another day simply sitting on a concrete island in the middle of an intersection, simply listening. Dozens of languages, hundreds of stories, thousands of car horns- the City never failed to amaze me. I began to notice changes in myself: I held my head higher, I walked with more confidence, and I wore exactly what I wanted to. I was no longer fearful of being judged; the City embraced me, she welcomed my individuality with open arms- unlike the small town I was so dreading returning to. A place where no one knew my name, no one knew my story, gave me the opportunity to be myself, nothing more, nothing less, was like meeting myself for the very first time.
I went back to my town with the confidence I had always hoped I might discover one day. I began to dress without fear of judgment, speak without fear of having my opinions challenged, and write without fear of my own horrible criticism. This was who I was supposed to be, my soul finally dug out from under the judgment and criticism of my hometown peers. The past two years have seen me through a variety of personal and family problems that I truly don’t think I could have gotten through if I hadn’t fallen...

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