What Makes New York New York

Lately I've been trying to describe to people just what New York means to me, how it's changed from a fantasy from movies, to a place that always proved to be a whirlwind short stay to my HOME.

Then, I found this from my friend Nina:

"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter - the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.

Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last - the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company."

E.B. White, "Here is New York," 1948

I think that just about sums it up. New York is an expression of passion for me. It's home, and home so quickly, because it is a positive outlet of my dreams. A final destination (sorry Mom). And my adventure.

It may be a corny Tshirt but I HEART NY.