By Maria Mardiki
Suffice to say I am a city girl to the core. I like waking up with a lot of noise going on outside my apartment. I like to be able to hop in the subway to go to work or to school or to any kind of destination for that matter. I like being surrounded by huge buildings. I value the majority of the things I just listed immensely. So it was a natural choice for me to come and live to New York. But after three years living in the big apple and some changes later, it has yet to grow on me that what I expected was far from what I found. But, what? It’s New York! It’s the city of lights! It’s the city that never sleeps! The theaters! The culture! What?! I know. It’s hard to grasp. But, before I continue I’ll give you a moment.
Amid all the uncertainty, only one thing is clear: everyone comes to New York with a suitcase full of hopes and dreams to finally land to JFK. The expectations are far from the reality that awaits to strike in each one of us. I was trying so hard not to know this, but the truth kept insisting itself to me.
It’s typical, cold December and I wake up from either the buzz of the alarm on the mobile, or the sound of the UPS trucks that have started early to deliver the online purchases of the workaholic residents. I slide quickly my feet to the warm Ugg boots, wear my fingerless gloves, I need the fingers for the i-pod touch that’s been already plugged in my ears, and head in a hurry to the subway with a quick stop to the corner coffee shop for the usual to-go coffee. The walk to the subway is a test of balance between the pavements and the streets, trying not to slip from the icy snow mountains that have been created by the trucks which cleaned the snow earlier this morning, and at the same time trying to avoid the small water ponds. When finally I arrive at the subway, at Astoria’s last station on Ditmars, I stay trapped for about twenty minutes in the train, surrounded by passengers like me, with either an ipod in the ears, or with a book or a blackberry in their hands. The train is filled with smells of coffee and bagels and the endless “click click” sounds of the blackberries. You can see all varieties of people inside, from the most ordinary to the most eccentric but you are already used to it, so no one, including you, pays any attention to anybody. You live in New York you’ve learned not to care about these things, nothing seems strange or awkward. You have been trained to expect anything each time you turn in a corner. And when I say anything I literally mean anything. From the most famous actress walking with no makeup in the streets, to watching a movie scene that is being shot in the next avenue.
And this is New York. The old saying that says “if you can make it here you can make it anywhere” is indeed true and you can easily find that out when you step out of the taxi from JFK. But it’s a gift so precious that keeps you addicted to the City and you keep struggling to make your dreams come true cause here you can make it happen.
