On Top of the Big Apple
New York, New York — how beautiful you are
In every new city I go to, one of my goals is always to see it from above.
I feel like when humans are the size of ants and you can see the vast expanse of the city all the way to the horizon, the true beauty starts to shine through.
There is something special about taking a step back (or many steps up) and gaining an entirely new perspective.
I totally forgot about these pictures until I saw the brief in Globetrotters monthly challenge and I’m so glad I remembered my trip to New York with my family in 2015.
Looking pretty different to now haha:
As you can see, phone quality wasn’t quite the same then as it is now. But the memories are as sharp as ever.
I had chopped off my long hair that summer, in hopes it would feel freeing. It was also the first summer I really travelled without my parents (interrailing with my sister, but still).
I remember how strange it felt to be so far up, looking down on the field of skyscrapers that fill out the entire Horizon.
New York is a fascinating city. I had grown up in London but New York felt like a whole nother dimension.
So, to see this vastness from above felt strange, but at the same time freeing. I knew there were millions of people below me, living their lives with their own unique hopes and dreams. There is something special about that.
America is all about excess, the meals are huge, the advertisements flash so bright your eyes start to hurt and the streets seem neverending. I’d been there before our trip to New York, however, nothing can prepare you for a city like that.
It feels like the entire world has congregated in one place.
Looking out at New York, the big apple, brought a strange sense of foreboding too. Something so vast, it’s easy to get lost. To not matter.
In a city so big, so full of dreams and hustlers — where do you start?
I remember loving New York, yet at the same time the perfectionist in me knew living there would break me. The constant drive to succeed in order to survive — I wouldn’t know when to stop, when to rest. I’d keep going until failure.
I’d still love to live in New York one day, but once I feel that I’ve made it elsewhere.
So that my identity doesn’t get lost in this need to prove myself. In New York, anybody can be somebody but somebody will always be nobody.
New York, New York — for now, I will admire you from afar. A bird’s view of the Big Apple :)
Want to learn more about New York?
Check out Delia Pena-Gay’s amazing article on her home town, Hunts Point, New York to hear from someone who actually grew up in New York:
Get a slice of New York’s rich history from Monica Ray, M.Ed, MS, MSci.:
To read more articles from myself and these other incredible writers, consider joining Medium today: