8.5 million bodies shuffling around this city, and I'm only a visitor, maybe an imposter, amongst the crowds.
For a person like myself, who revels in the ability to be anonymous, New York City is my kind of bag. The average joe combats that thought with sky high rent, crime, shitty New Yorker attitude, the usual. But — I can dispute those factors pretty easily.
A) I'm set on being poor for awhile. I'm not keen on it, but it's my reality. I'm definitely romantisizing the struggle of moving to NYC with nothing and making your way up, but that's a hell of story. I'm at peace with risks. I welcome a feared dip into the unknown. It's 50% terrifying and 50% liberating. In this respect, i'm an optimist.
B) Crime is around every corner in the world. And, statistically speaking, crime has decreased drastically since 9/11 and there's police everywhere, with emergency buttons peppered through out the city. Again, risks! I'm alright with it.
C) Shitty NY attitude? All the people I met were pretty sweet. If i'm being candid, i'm kind of an asshole, too.
I come from a small city in the prairies of Canada, the kind of city you would still call your "home town". It's flat, slow, and if it's not bitterly cold, it's scorching hot. That place is the antithesis of NYC. Naturally, I was smitten with the city that is said to never sleep. Because... well, either do I.
Back home, there's a rooftop of one of the taller buildings you can stand on top of, but you had to scurry around sub par mall security to get to it. It wasn't that hard. Reiterating the fact this place is slow. I'd stand there, hoping to feel empowered, somewhere I could look far off into the distance and see another life. It never delivered. I don't compare these two places, but it's a drastic change in the feelings that stem from these experiences.
It's likely that if I were to move there, nothing would come from it. But — you have to at least buy a ticket to get on the ride. Maybe it's too fanciful to pretend that something exciting may happen in my life, I might do something i'm proud of and be financially successful, but I'd rather give it my best than never try at all. I'm painfully aware that is a cliché sentiment. Still, I can get behind it whole heartedly.
“I’m so tired of gettin’ nowhere/ seen’ my prayers goin’ unanswered/ I guess the lord must be in New York City”
Prayers unanswered in one place goes unanswered in the next. But since when did art need logic or reasoning? I thrive off of that notion. The sunrise separating you from your yesterdays. Good omens. Bad omens. Flying in to New York City was like skipping along the yellow brick road, and the skyline reminiscent of Emerald City. You're bound to be hurt everywhere you go in life, I might as well be living out my odds in New York City. It's not nessecarily a path I'm set on by any means, but since moving away from my home town, I've been standing on a pretty high building, and at least from here, I can see it's out there, it is possible, it is an option.