(download: Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind.mp3)
The concrete jungle is where dreams are made. There is no other city like it in the world. And there is no other place in the world I would rather be. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. So cliché, but so true! And this NY is just one of the many reasons why I love you.
It’s dubbed as the city that never sleeps. Where the cost of living is high, the living space is cramped, and life moves at the speed of light. Where the competition is steep in the corporate world and even steeper in the dating world...unless of course you’re a young bachelor, then New York becomes your playground. Sorry ladies, but the number of single women heavily outweighs the number of single men in NYC, making your love life resemble a disastrous episode of "Sex And The City."
NYC is not for everyone, but for over 8 million people, it is home. And for millions more, it’s the place they one day dream of calling home, which is precisely why I love this photo (shown above.) Several years ago, during my first ever trip to NYC, I took this photo of a deserted bench in Central Park. I came across it during a mid-October stroll and there was just something about it that stopped me dead in my tracks. It had this gravitational pulling power over me. Framed by colorful crackling leaves and the crisp autumn air, it invites you to come take a seat. To relax your weary legs and unwind your mind. Quiet and peaceful. An escape from the noisy, bustling streets. It was an invitation I couldn't resist.
I sat down on the bench, running my hand over the wooden knots, my fingertips through the metal etching. I saw immense beauty in this bench. The blistering of the forest green paint and the small heart-shapped carvings left by past teenage lovers only gave it more character. I decided to capture it's beauty. Not the best photograph I've ever snapped, but one of my all-time favorite photos. And for whatever reason, a photo I've never shared with anyone, until now.
I know the metal plaque was meant to be nothing more than a simple advertisement for CentralParkNYC.org, but yet I felt like it was meant for me. Like a subliminal message, it spoke to me. Or maybe it was saying exactly what "I" wanted to say to the city - please adopt me!
Make no mistake about it. NY is the city that can chew you up and spit you out faster than you can whistle for a cab. But despite that well known fact, we continue to have big hopes and even bigger dreams. To have a NY state of mind, people say you must adapt to life living in the city. But how can you adapt to something that is forever changing? I say you can never truly adapt. And what you may feel like is adaptation, is really the moment in time in which you are adopted. It’s the day NYC takes you in and calls you one of its own. So now the big question...
Will it adopt you? Or beat you like the unwanted, redheaded stepchild that you are?
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