New York, town I all the time dreamed of

It isn’t day by day you set foot in New York for the primary time. In fact, it solely occurs as soon as in a lifetime. For me, it was a July night. I arrived within the humidity of Pennsylvania Station, a light-weight blue males’s shirt on my again and a big briefcase in hand. I had slipped essentially the most stunning items of my wardrobe there, however the extra the escalator took me to the floor, the extra my garments seemed outdated. I felt like an area arriving within the metropolis. As a result of it was the middle of the universe earlier than me.

It was clear that I had fallen in love with New York. As a schoolgirl experiencing her first feelings, like when, as a toddler, I lastly noticed the ocean for the primary time, after lengthy hours of driving. Reaching the top of the windmill, I stepped out into the crisp night air. And there they had been. Removed from the tacky towers of Frankfurt and the trashy skyscrapers, the towers of Manhattan had been earlier than me. I dropped my bag and leaned my head again to stare blankly on the lights that had been shining on the sixtieth, seventieth, eightieth ground. Framed towards the darkish night time sky, the jagged silhouettes of the buildings appeared to swallow me up. The blue and yellow defend of the new canine distributors, the massive letters on the faces, the roar of the meals vehicles, the fury of the horns, the gang…

At that very second, one thing clicked someplace within the universe, and my dream got here true. Once I have a look at the video in the present day that’s immortal tonight, I inform myself that nobody must have their eyes widened so large earlier than.

As soon as I used to be sitting in a taxi heading to Brooklyn, I rolled down the window and put my face out into the night time. The air was heavy with the odor of exhaust fumes, building mud, sewage and fried meals. My driver, an Indian who had arrived in the US greater than thirty years earlier, was towards the stench of this metropolis. “disgusting, crowded and too noisy”. My smile grew a bit of wider with every of his phrases. “You recognize, I all the time dreamed…, I began, earlier than I modified my thoughts. My plan was all the time to come back to New York. ” The driving force checked out me within the rearview mirror, earlier than shrugging his shoulders. “Typically initiatives come true,” he answered, with out hesitation.

I do not know which New York or the ocean name got here first, however I all the time knew I’d stay there sooner or later. Nothing could be very unique, it is true. However I’m satisfied that every of us has a small imaginative and prescient deep inside us, a secret venture, which is able to assist us get by the grey and lengthy nights of November, to beat troublesome occasions – the intention to search out Rio de Janeiro, to assembly the charming younger man on the 5 line, shopping for a home by the ocean – and for me, it was all the time New York. Life there could be grandiose and spectacular. I’d be grandiose and engaging there. As if I had been my very own life from the surface.

The life I all the time imagined

Every part accelerated final fall, on a depressing day. The one notable occasions in my day by day life as an writer had been surprising Home windows updates, and I used to be out of the blue hit with the knowledge that this was my final likelihood to make my dream come true. You in all probability need to be over 28 to really feel that urgency. So I made a decision to maneuver to New York for a couple of months. Whatever the $2,500 a month lease, I solely thought of one factor: I used to be going to be a younger writer in New York.

Oscar Wilde as soon as mentioned: “There are two tragedies in life