“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”

Growing up in upstate New York, I always knew I was destined for something different. I lived in a town with like-minded people with narrow views. I went to a high school where I never quite fit in and was never considered the “cool girl”. I always had dreams of something more, something bigger, something different. I always dreamed of moving to New York City, the lights, the noise, the hustle and bustle, it all appealed to me. I loved that no one cared who you were, but you had the ability to make people know who you were. I didn’t make it to this beautiful city I now call home until I was 15 years old and I am not sure how I lived those 15 years without it. I never knew the world could be so beautiful until I was standing in the heart of Financial District watching all the glamorous people, striving to be someone. It wasn’t just the fashion that appealed to me, it was everything, the fast pace, the late nights and early mornings. It was the hidden coffee shops and the 24 hour services. It was how I couldn’t sleep without the noise, like I was in need of hearing something other than my own thoughts. It was flower shops around every corner, the dog walkers, and the little kids laughing. Everything about New York was magical. To this day, I still refuse to question the dream in which I live. Who can say they can get $1 dollar pizza, a pair of Loui’s, and tickets to a Broadway show all on the same block?

New York has a way of making you forget everything else, it is said it is the loudest city on planet earth, making you forget the noises in your head, letting you escape from what you call reality, allowing you to dream while wide awake. It baffles me that more people don’t see what I see, they only see the garbage, or smell the dirt, but they look past the beauty. They forget to see the magic being created in front of them, the diversity, the culture, the romance. I believe I ended up in New York to be born again, a place to start over, a place to be me. And although New York has made me perpetually late, given me a sense of sass I didn’t know was possible, and a death stare that could kill, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I fell in love with this city like most people fall in love with each other. I’ve given this city my sweat, my blood, myself. It amazes me how many extraordinary things can truly happen in a New York minute.

They say there is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless and man, are they right. People go to sleep dreaming about places like this, to feel the instant satisfaction of being somewhere that feels so much like home, but it’s hard to sleep when you live this reality. New York is a beautiful catastrophe, filled with the most interesting people from all over the world. I think the people from New York are misunderstood, we're judged for our clothing, our outlook on life, our attitude, but I think everyone else is mistaken, the fashion is incredible, our outlook on life is honest and real, and our attitude well, that might be the one thing they got right. It takes a certain type of person to survive New York and you’re lucky if that’s you.

“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding”. New York, thank you for being my home, and thank you for making me believe in love.