Gotham

New York CityI’m jaded. I was born and raised in New York City and have lived there my whole life. I even chose to stay in NYC for college and my first real experience living somewhere else was this semester, studying abroad in Shanghai. This pompous New York attitude has been with me my whole life, why live anywhere else? Any other city is just a downgrade anyway. I felt that the world’s people and their cultures were all coming to me; I didn’t have a need to travel anywhere else. Boy was I wrong.

I suppose my attitude starting changing when I traveled to Hawaii for a week in December 2008. I instantly fell in love with the island culture and the laid-back attitude of the locals. It was a stark contrast to the fast paced living of New York. Admittedly, my fondness for Hawaiian culture might have also been because of the nice local girl I met who taught me about Hawaii, but nonetheless, I was beginning to accept a world outside of New York. C

Coming to Shanghai was really an eye opener. The only city I ever knew was New York, it was my habit. Breaking my habit and living in a foreign city barely speaking the language was something I needed to do to break out of my shell, to break my habit. I have since come to really enjoy Shanghai and have seen all the opportunities it brings, as the vanguard city in a constantly changing country. Since, I have decided to possibly move here after my undergraduate degree to pursue opportunities here. A quote that stands out for me is “It seems inconceivable that there could be anything new to find in a place where we have been living for a decade or more. We have become habituated and therefore blind to it”. I have become habituated to New York and living in Shanghai, leaving my room, have made me a more cultured and experienced person. My only fear is that going back to New York, the city that it is; will make me go back to old habits.