Wandering Around: New York City

First subway station on the Upper West Side

The smells wafting from each neighborhood’s restaurants erupt before they can float above the skyscrapers… linguini mixing with lamb chops mixing with won tons until it all becomes too much.

Lane lines are rendered useless as cabs dart in every direction to drive cosmopolitans to cocktail hour. Each building is larger and more elaborate than the next, as if they’re mirroring the pedestrians below and competing for popularity.

I dare you to take one ride on the subway and not see every race represented, every age, every gender, it's all there. I dare you to look out your window at 4 a.m. and not see a crowd still wandering the sidewalks, moving in slow motion under the lights of the Lower East Side.

Neighborhoods demand allegiances, and each one has its own calling card. 

Heels stomp, horns honk, peddlers sell, cameras flash and the homeless jiggle their nearly empty cans.

New York City is everything, all at once. I got lost and became anonymous in a place that moves faster than I’m capable of. And that’s when I realized it.

Maybe people come to New York City to be alone.