One Day in New York City

Today is the day. The gate attendant finally announces that it's my turn to board Southwest Airlines flight 710. I grab my luggage and get ready for what will be one of the best experiences of my life. After an eternity of flying, I finally feel the plane begin to descend. The muffled voice of the pilot, pressure in my eardrums, and the rumbling of the plane's engines are no match for my excitement as I eagerly wait for the plane's descent.

The plane touches the ground, and the very first thing I see is a sign that reads, "WELCOME TO NEW YORK CITY." I unreluctantly get off of the plane and breathe my first breath of New York air. It's finally time to capture the true essence of New York City a place where extraordinary experiences are inevitable.

Being from Texas, one of the main things I was ready to experience was the vast amount of attractions that New York had to offer.

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I had everything from Times Square to Broadway's hit musical, "Wicked," to look forward to. We started with sightseeing. As we meandered through the vibrant Times Square, I began to realize something there's no such thing as silence here. The incessant music, talking, honking, and flashing animated signs were just enlivening to say the least. Everything seemed to jump out all at once like feathers on a peacock immediately catching your attention. I've never been in a place so full of energy.

People walking to and fro with the confidence of a lion, lights from multiple different flashing billboards, the smell of various processed foods filling your nostrils it's truly the city that never sleeps.

However, if for some reason Times Square isn't your cup of tea, no worries. Take your metro card, and head over to one of the many subway stations strategically placed throughout the city. Traveling at speeds of about 45 mph, you'll be at Central Park in no time. Central Park truly is the polar opposite of Times Square. Trying to find a spot that isn't filled with green vegetation and immense trees is like trying to find a grain of sugar in a salt shaker: next to impossible. It was the only place in New York that I could truly escape all of the noise. The peaceful atmosphere it provides is genuinely breathtaking. Birds singing, pure clean air, and artists doing everything from painting the beautiful landscape to capturing the perfect picture at every corner. Not to mention, if you're lucky, you might even stumble across the infamous memorial of John Lennon, Strawberry Fields.

As I continued to roam the streets of New York, I started to notice one key thing about the city: the people are extremely real with you. While this is often misinterpreted as rude, I don't think that is truly the case. Yes, I did run into the occasional man who would scream vulgar things at me if I looked at him the wrong way, but I don't think that it's fair to label all New Yorkers this way. From a general standpoint, everyone just wants to mind their own business and go about their day. This being said, there are some exceptions that I experienced while I was there. For example, while we were visiting the 9/11 Memorial, or "Ground Zero," our tour guide was showing us a mural painted to honor the firefighters on scene in 2001. As we were admiring the mural, a man walks up and starts to interrupt our tour guide.

He starts to say things like, pay attention and people's lives were lost here; this is important. He was trying to get us to understand how devastating the events that happened on 9/11 truly were. This experience helped me to realize that people from New York aren't trying to come across as rude. They're not trying to be the person that interrupts someone while they're talking. They're trying to be real with you, and help you realize things from their perspective. Even though this abrupt manner of dealing with people isn't a part of most American culture, it truly is an important part of the New York way of life.

John Updike once said that, The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding. This quote couldn't be any more true. The more I wandered through this wonderful city, the more I realized the blatant distinctions between my home state and The Big Apple. Everything was different from the outrageous prices to restaurants kicking us out for taking too long to order our food it all just seemed a little absurd. The common hospitable gestures that you would normally find in Texas weren't so prevalent here. For example, don't expect to walk into a restaurant and order one large pizza for the entirety of your group. Make that mistake and you're out of there in a New York minute. Each of your group members should order something for themselves so you're not wasting their time. However, there are more pros to this interesting New York culture than one might think.