Uncle Jim and Aunt May always reminisce about the aura and atmosphere of the city. It’s unfortunate to hear. The attractions are endless there. Only they seem to give it the proper appeal.

“One day Julia,” says Aunt May.

On my eighteenth birthday, it was already predetermined that I was going to go to the city and leave our small town of Red River, Nebraska for awhile. My first view of the city was ever so near.

It was meant to be.

After the flight, I was in the outskirts of the city. A nice man hailed a taxi for me, opened the door, and proceeded on with his night. A shame I couldn’t have gotten a word with him.

“Where to ma’am?” states the taxi driver. “Um I don’t know. The Garden...” I hesitantly said.

Weaving and cruising through the city, I see the streets littered with suffering. Men and women just scattered throughout the avenues. Shopping carts full of personal mementos and belongings. Make shift beds lying on the sub-zero temperature ground.

But just down the road, the bright lights in which my Aunt and Uncle spoke of are brighter than I have ever imagined. Luxury and magnificence are highly apparent in this part of the city. Buildings reaching to the sky and high end lavished sports cars leave you in a state of awe.

The city was depressed but it was bold. Bold with expression and definition.

I keep thinking that there is always a place that really takes you back. And to me, that place is New York. It’s a place of new opportunities but at the same time, it reminds you of the reality.

Once, I got out of the taxi, and stared in amazement of historical Madison Square Garden, a man accidently ran into me. Mostly me to blame, he still apologized very nicely. Instead of letting him keep walking, I held him back from going.

“What is your most favorite part of the city?” I say in possibly the most feminine, girly voice imaginable. I hear back, “What you were just staring at young lady.”
At least I am not the only one who sees the undistinguished beauty of the Garden. It seems as if people just pass it by here.

While walking around the city center, with no destination, I see a women on the side of the road; almost lifeless. I can imagine millions of people walk past her everyday not even giving her the time of day.

“What’s your name?” I ask the young but mature looking woman. “Don’t worry about it” she snarls back at me. In disbelief of her response back to me, I simply just walked away like I have been doing, and avoided her. It makes sense to why everyone passes her by.

After several hours of just roaming the dawn infused streets, it was to my admiration that the city was still wide awake; it doesn’t sleep. I kept telling myself throughout my walks around town that this place was made for someone like me; and it is.

About two weeks later, it was time for me to return to Red River. There was no part of me that wanted to leave at all but after a phone call in a local phone booth to my Aunt and Uncle, I think it was time for me to take a visit back home.

The couple hours I have left, I want to soak it all in. And I plan on doing that by going to one place; where the distraught lady was. I wasn’t going to speak to her, but I was going to glance over to her in admiration. She is a powerful source of positivity in my eyes but not in others.
When I went back to where she was, she was not there. Absolutely gone. Not even any of her blankets or any part of her belongings was there. She moved on to where she was.

Hours later, I finally arrived back in Red River. The only thing I truly wanted to do was go talk to Aunt May and Uncle Jim.

“So what did you think of it all Julia?” said in excitement when we first see each other by the both of them. “It was amazing. A whole new world to what a girl like me is used to.” I state without hesitation.

Going to New York was a life altering experience in more ways than one. The glamour and distress is apparent in the city but it is up to those who go to choose the right path.