Growing up, I remember reading about NYC and seeing images of NYC in media and thinking about what if I lived there.
When I was in elementary school, I read a novel called "Children in Hiding" - and I still have it. The novel is about Tomas and Fernanda, two kids who live in NYC. I won't go into the plot but, basically, Tomas learns that they will be put in an orphanage because their parents don't come home. He finds an abandoned apartment and the two of them live there, surviving on scraps. Tomas is a hustler and ends up meeting a photographer named Barbara who takes him to the beach for a photo session. The story ends up working out for them. I wanted to live like that, buying into this romantic idea that life in NYC was the best. On top of that novel, I would read issues of Modern Drummer with interviews with drummers that lived in NYC, soaking in each detail revealed about their lives in The Big Apple.
Fast forward to May 2018. My family drives from Iowa to NYC. We take a train into NYC. We go to the 9-11 museum and see remnants of that horrible tragedy. In the cab, on our way to Central Park, I saw the famous Soup Nazi restaurant from Seinfeld - probably the only episode I ever have watched. We stay in a hotel in Times Square and go to The Lion King and eat at The Hard Rock Cafe, seeing a Count The Stars sticker on a door. The next morning, we go to Good Morning America and end up being on TV with Michael Statham, calling my in-laws to talk to them on a video call. Then we drove up to Syracuse and then to Canada.
I'm certainly not an expert about NYC. I'm certainly glad I never lived in NYC, especially when I watch the Actual Justice Warrior YouTube channel and hear Shawn describe the craziness happening in NYC.
Case in point, this video:
https://youtu.be/q4CVEdZGxB4?si=L_-o-HHVQhIw6EHy