While walking back from Koreatown towards Penn Station to catch number 1 train, carrying three grocery bags by myself, I reflected on my experience when I first moved to New York.
This time in New York was not the first time in the States for me. But still it was the first time in a place so big and a place of dreams for many. For me, to be perfectly honest, New York was never on my list. In other words, I never dreamed or even thought of living here. For my entire life, I love living in a medium-sized city like Chicago where it is not too busy on the weekdays and you can still feel a bit like living in a small town where people call your name when your iced latte is ready at their coffee shop and smile at you every time they see you on the street. New York did not appeal to me that way.
Here, in New York, my experience when I first visited here in 2012 was not a pleasant one. Back then, of course, like many who have lived in a smaller town/city like me would have experience of living in such a big city for the first time, I thought people here were so mean that they would cut me off in the middle of the sentence. In brief, they would never let me finish what I said and that to me (and to many as well) was very mean and rude.
I also remember when I first moved to this city two years later. Passerby would walk so fast as if they were always in a rush for something and for a weird reason I would always be in their way and I didn’t know what to do. Soon enough before I knew it, I have become one of those New Yorkers. I walk so fast as if I am afraid that someone is chasing from my back. I do not stop and interrupt the flood (flow) of people. I sometimes get annoyed if someone (usually a tourist) stands in the middle of the flow. At times, I may be mean and rude but I never mean to be that way.
One thing I remain the same though is being me.
I still smile a lot, say sorry too much and laugh often as always.
