NP: "Finna Get Loose" - Puff Daddy & The Family feat. Pharrell
Rainbow Icees, dollar pizza, and the beloved lime-green and white metro cards; the Holy Grail for a 15-year-old girl living in Harlem. With that metro card, half-days turned into countless adventures and $5 was sufficient enough to fuel you up until you ate dinner that night. In the evenings, we're used to cars, music, and other miscellaneous sounds to the point where if we’d go to a small quiet town it would be incredibly uncomfortable; the craziness becomes comforting. You were exposed to things at an early age and, in my opinion, we were required to grow up quicker than most to survive in the concrete jungle. It had never dawned me how much of a different life I lived than your average suburbia teenager until recently.
1. Losing childhood friends.
You see most kids outside of the city travel with the same kids from elementary to junior high and high school. But in the city, it’s a process similar to the college process where we apply schools and get acceptances. The majority of the time you chose a school outside of your district because you wanted to be far from home. This made it very rare to maintain early friendships throughout high school and the whole “finding yourself” process came early. I was lucky enough to get chosen to the same school as one of my best friends and it made my experience very enjoyable and worthwhile.
2. Ritual breakfast
Baconegg&cheese – yes that is one word. This sandwich is a staple food in any NYC teen's diet. At 8:30 a.m., the line in the bodegas would reach all the way back to the coolers as we would wait for our beloved sandwich. Some people like it with ketchup, mayo, on a bagel. I personally liked it plain on a bagel. It was always super necessary to get an Arizona on the side. Nothing stopped you from getting this sandwich; you would get it any time of the day, too! Even if you showed up an hour late, you would still walk into class with your tin foil wrapped roll filling the room with its delicious smell.
3. Poker face
Most people I knew took the train everyday to school. After class, crowds of young, rumbustious teens would fill the streets as we mobbed to the train stations. Some just kind of loitered around and some of us would go straight home. There were always two types of teens: the ones who were really loud and brave, walking up to anybody with some smart remark, and there were others, like myself, who would sit on the train with Apple ear buds and a poker face. It was so necessary to have this poker face, unless you wanted someone to bother you.
4. Everyday is a fashion show
Your fit was the most important thing in high school. It was how you identified yourself and it determined which group of people you would fit in with. Sophomore year, I really developed a sense of style and now I realize how creative I was with close to nothing. I would visit all the thrift stores in the lower east side and rack up on Levi’s high-waisted shorts and vintage tee’s – before Tumblr made it a thing – lol. Most of the time I would get a dollar slice and use my lunch money to buy one article of clothing. You definitely had to be resourceful. Everyday I’d have to take the L train, which was pretty cool, honestly. Even until today, it’s the most hipster line, I think, and it was always interesting to me to watch the people walk in and out with their platform shoes, cowboy hats and brass rings. I would study their styles and give it an uptown twist. In high school, there were the hipsters, the ones who only cared about labels, the simplistic ones and the ones who didn’t care. Somehow my best friend and I would fit in anywhere.
5. Street smarts
Streets smarts are almost instinctive for city kids. You can tell whether or not the homeless guy is actually homeless or a drug addict. You would know to never leave your things unaccompanied or you would never see it again. You would know to be cautious in certain surroundings solely based off the vibes of people. I've been on the subway where a group of young terrorized our cart with a knife. As the leader approached our group and the decided to pick on the one boy we were with; we knew to kindly ask him to leave us alone because we were asking for no trouble. You have to be firm and respectful in situations like that, but you are never taught these things. I often thought my street smarts were common sense. But I was terribly wrong. I’ve seen many people come to the city for the first time and they get swallowed whole. It’s so easy for you to get caught up in a bad situation, especially if you aren’t from here. But if you are from NYC, you just know better. The creeps indeed come out at night.
Often I dream of buying a home elsewhere to give my children a simpler lifestyle; the city can be overwhelming. But then I think of the person it molded me to be and although it’s a big scary city, it's my home.
