When I was a little girl, I was once quoted as saying, "Look at the bright lights of the big city!" as I rode into a town with a population of about 5,000. Looking back, I think most of those lights were actually coming from cow barns, but I digress. A lot has changed since then; this past weekend I made my first venture into the Big Apple! (It only took me 21 years of living in New York to actually go to the city.) I had heard a lot of different opinions before I went, ranging from people who could not get enough to people that wouldn't go back if their life depended on it. Based on these viewpoints I looked forward to formulating my own, and here it is.

Pros:

There's something about the atmosphere that is nothing short of enlivening. While walking through Times Square, it's almost as though the crazy amount of electricity coming from the billboards and the storefronts charges your soul and makes you forget what time it is or how many miles you walked that day. There are crystal clear displays all around toting popular animated films or boasting the newest lines of cosmetics, which make it feel as though the buildings themselves are alive and luring you to listen to what they have to say.

The cultural aspect of New York City was probably my favorite. Whether it is seeing a show on Broadway, visiting a specialty bake shop, testing out the street cuisine or simply people-watching, there is a unique culture to be found at every turn. Nowhere have I ever seen such an eclectic mix of clothing styles found all in one place. Walking down just one block it is not uncommon to see someone in casual wear, another in designer labels and an additional in nothing at all!

Cons:

The biggest complaint I heard about NYC before my trip was the smell and boy, did that ring true! It wasn't a constant lingering, but more of a sudden wall of odor that would smack you in the face every few blocks and then fade away only to rear its ugly head in another 100 steps. The excessive crowds definitely didn't help matters. Being that the Big Apple attracts visitors from around the world, it lends itself to a unique blend of aromas. I would describe it as a kind of un-showered, stale grease, pee-soaked dust cloud that kind of makes the back of your throat close. But like I said, it's not allthe time.

If you are a bleeding heart like me, then I also had a hard time seeing the extreme amount of homelessness in this city. It broke my heart to see people sleeping on sidewalks or benches in droves. It was all I could do not to tear up and buy a meal for everyone I saw living on the streets. This, however, brings about a whole other set of issues I hadn't considered; counterfeit homelessness. I never thought I would put those two words together, but in NYC I seemed to encounter at least 15 different freshly bathed/clean clothed characters claiming to be homeless or to be helping the homeless while holding a jar that said, "Tips." Who knows? One or two of them could have been legitimate, but the realist in me knew they were just exploiting a legitimate issue for profit.

Overall, there were many things about the city that I enjoyed (the food, the music, the culture) and things I could have gone without (the smell, crowds, homelessness, gimmicks.) So would I go back? Of course. As best told by Pete Hamill, "New York is a city of daily irritations, occasional horrors, hourly tests of will and even courage, and huge dollops of pure beauty."