New York City, Will You Be My Valentine?

Photo by Andreas Kruck on Unsplash

There are so many movies in New York, and each of these movies contain some iconic shots of skyscrapers, the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the subway, etc.

I want to experience NYC through that camera lens instead of my tired and blurry eyes.

These movies make me wish that I was not from New York City.
Because I want to experience the city the way someone coming from a small town would. I want to feel the sensory overload of Times Square for the first time. I want to be a break my thin crust pizza virginity for the first time. I want to feel the anxiety and nervousness of taking the subway for the first time, only to feel the pride of successfully navigating the confusing squiggly lines on the NYC map. I want to read the synopsis of every story I witness at each corner of the city, only to have my imagination fill in the blanks.

But I am stuck curating and worrying about my own story, that I don’t realize the beauty of the stories in front of me.

Working in Midtown, I am hyperfocused on getting from point A to B within the quickest way possible that Times Square lights could not be dimmer for me.

I forget to appreciate the subway when I am complaining about the seemingly inevitable “train traffic ahead of us” and being…