(no subject)
Bright lights, big city: Tokyo, Paris, Toronto, Los Angeles. All of these are beautifully robust and consequential urban areas, bursting with life and entertainment but they simply pail in comparison to the concrete jungle itself: New York, New York. No city on this planet has ever been as appropriately romanticized in literature, music, art, movies and television even half as much as the big apple. Ol' Blue Eyes himself wasn't kidding when he sang, "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere" in his aptly titled ode to the metropolis. This ambition is exemplified by the fact that in Manhattan alone, the smallest and most densely populated of the five boroughs and indisputably the heart of the city, there is a population of over seventy-thousand people per square mile. Seventy-thousand people. Meaning that, people are so sure that living in this city will make something of their life, that they don't even care if they have to live on top of each other in an astronomically priced shoebox to simply be a part of it.
New York City is a place overrun with opportunity, excitement and creativity with something to offer for all walks of life. Whether it's enjoying a rooftop runway on the Upper East Side, downing PBR's at a dive bar in Williamsburg, witnessing Derek Jeter's three-thousandth hit in Yankee Stadium, admiring historical artwork at MoMA, or simply sitting on the Brooklyn promenade on a clear day, drinking in the ever-expanding Manhattan skyline.
New York is a city that epitomizes and embraces individuality, allowing you to be, dress, think and act anyway your heart desires or can imagine. A city so desensitized that the “crazy lady with tourette's” on the J train isn't an aberration, but simply Sue, getting her feelings out in the open on her daily commute. A city humming with the constant melodious cacophony of sirens, alarms, construction and people, that it is extremely unsettling to be in the Financial District after 8 PM and be able to hear your own thoughts. And most importantly, a city not only able to withstand one of the greatest tragedies to befall this nation, but also able to persevere and rise from the ashes in solidarity with a newfound respect for the delicacy of life.
If you ask me, New York City is, hands down, the greatest city on earth. It is the most publicized and admired city that I have ever known and it is the only place capable of evoking such passion and interest. It’s my kind of city and I dream of the day when I can make my caffeine-filled return to the city that never sleeps.
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Shitty commemorative speech written in an hour. Shitty ending, but whatever. I fuckin miss the city.