There are roughly three New Yorks

One week has passed since I landed at JFK and stepped into a much bigger world. In that week, I have started the process of becoming a New Yorker logistically. However, in attitude and in spirit I haven’t even scratched the surface.

I inspected the neighborhood stores, navigated the subway routes, and was shown around mid-town by a few new Columbia friends. Several times, I was speechless in the shadow of blocks of massive structures. I learned to walk on the right side of a walkway — and walk fast– or risk being swept away. I also had to pick up the tricks of the tip and that there is even a whole science to tipping. So, now, included in my list of stuff to bring to school, I just added a Dummies’ Guide to Tipping .

In short, I’m in awe. I’ve already been assured that in time I will become accustomed to the city and join the hoards of New Yorkers going about their lives amid the fantastic back-drop that you’d expect from the capital of the world. Coincidentally enough, it was an ad for Columbia University that made me think that these assurances had any merit. (Who would have thought that an advertisement could provoke intellectual musing instead of the usual provocations associated with billboards and obnoxious posters?!) It got me thinking … and I remember what E.B. White once said, and it gave me some hope for the future.

“ There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. […] Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.” E.B. White

In four years, I expect to be one of those passionate, nouveau New Yorkers, but for now, I’m okay with being a restless up-and-coming freshman.