City Series: NYC

I'm on a bus right now to Philadelphia, my second home. After about half an hour of traffic in NYC, I'm finally on the Turnpike on a beautiful aesthetically pleasing ride, while the weather outside is furiously scorching. At 10:30 AM.

Driving past the NYC skyline is always inspiring for me.

I have the world in my backyard. A city sprawling with corporate types, hard laborers, hipsters, bums, immigrants, and everything in between, lies a mere 15 minutes away from me. The city is so enormous, that it is almost unrelenting. An island, a rock, just completely filled with nonstop blocks of storefronts, apartments, and schools. The wide streets form a a grid navigated by energetic and fearless yellow cabs and equally energetic and fearless pedestrians who's second nature is to casually jay walk. Somehow, getting trampled by a pedestrian becomes a serious threat.
 
The buildings here are probably the closest things to actually living up to the name "skyscraper." The Empire State Building can almost poke a hole into the blue dome ceiling above us all.

The energy here is just different. If American culture values and relies on competition to be successful, as opposed to the all-for-one/one-for-all mindset that resides in Japanese culture for example, then the Big Apple is the damn Olympics. Cultural melting pot. Busy and non-stop. And cut-throat competitive.

Japan is Wimbledon.

They call New York City the World's Capital. I call it my backyard.

Too bad that means the Hudson is my swimming pool.

You're all invited.


-----

Have a nice, safe weekend everybody! Stay hydrated and give your mom a hug and a kiss.

Erick