Growing up, I always was drawn to rock n' roll music and the classic films during the era of the 70s and 80s. I would spend countless hours studying these films and watching these artists and their stories. From watching these, I learned so much about about life and about those days. From all of these stories ranging from rock stars to actors, one city came up the most in reference and conversation- New York.
Though this fascination for New York grew more and more as I got older, I can remember from where it stems. As a little girl, I would stare out the window and look across the Bayonne Bridge and see the tall concrete buildings. I especially loved when my mom would take me for a nighttime car ride just so I could look at the dazzling lights gleaming from the buildings across the water in hopes of one day visiting them.
Then finally as I got older, my mom took me for my first trip there. My eyes and heart grew more than I ever knew they could. The moment I stepped foot in New York, I felt like I was in Old New York - filled with the aroma and presence of old Hollywood glamour that I had only heard about. New York showed me how truly small I was compared to the world. Everything from the cars, the noise, to the people dizzied me with hope. I was lost and filled with wonderment of how I was even so lucky to have seen a place so beautiful.
I looked back at the interviews of people living in the decades of the 70s and 80s and I finally understood exactly what they were talking about when they would reference the city. So many songs and films talked about New York and I could finally relate. Billy Joel's, "New York State of Mind" struck me and made me realize that I wasn't the only one with this fascination. This song was the first thing that made me think of how magical and meaningful New York was and is to so many other people in the world.
People always ask me the reason I want to be in New York, and I can never describe it into words. It is just a feeling that I get there, that I don't feel anywhere else. New York makes me feel like I belong somewhere and that I'm a part of something thats indescribable. The impact that the city has had on me is overwhelming. It's hard to imagine what my life would be like if I never saw New York. There's not one day that goes by that I don't think about my life in there.The beauty it has from the raindrops on taxi cabs to the falling leaves in Central Park make the city so beautiful. It's as if the city is my true love.