The Big Apple, Toronto Talk, and Reflections

I have just returned from one of the most wonderful vacations I have ever taken. Usually my trips focus on family, which is joyous, but for once I visited a new destination. New York is really what they say it is. It is beyond words. You walk down the street and suddenly there is an onslaught of different peoples babbling in foreign tongues and mixing together. The subway approaches and you sit down in the car next to some stranger and you can't help but feel some kind of kindred shared spirit despite the attempts to avoid each others' eyes. The park in the center of all the craziness: a refuge of quiet peacefulness. Towering skyscrapers that make you feel so small yet so immersed in the city. The city becomes part of you and you become part of the city. The art galleries and museums that penetrate into the soul of artistry and awaken the senses in unimaginable ways. And to think I only visited a few places in this grand city; I already feel like I've lived there.

Quickly we rush off to Toronto via New Jersey (which happens to be as depressing as is rumored). With a sudden halt we are in Canada where everything seems to mellow out. Toronto isn't very different from New York except it's about a quarter the size and much cleaner and safer. It's so quaint yet diverse. But my family there really made me think. My cousin is going to follow in his mother's footsteps and become an accountant. I even asked him if he was excited for this job, and his reply was a brusque "no." Despite the beautiful tree-lined streets and the lovely nannies that stroll the babies around town for wealthy parents of North York, there is a coldness to this culture. It seems so dismal to live a life of pampering to only become a moneyman accepting a dull life as if it were something to be proud of.

So while this doesn't not do justice to Toronto as a whole, which is also one of my favorite cities, my family there causes me to symbolize the city with a sort of simplistic satisfaction. It's as if living in such perfection leads one to become contented with only a mediocre future. New York on the other hand is exciting for me. And it really doesn't matter what city it is, but the point is that we all need to escape the boundaries that society has set for us. I could easily become just a lawyer or a businessman, but I want to make a difference to the world (If only I could do more instead of just talk). If anything, New York and Toronto just inspired me to be myself. I am going to go into this new school year with a fresh perspective. I think I've grown quite a bit this summer and I'm excited to apply my wisdom and my dreams to actual reality.

New York is like life. You get lost. It's crazy. You figure out part of it, but then you find out there's a whole other borough to get lost in again. There are people all around you and there are voices influencing you all the time. But in the midst of all the craziness of a city or just plain old living, you have to be you. You have to have faith in who you are. You have to accept that you are alive and on this planet for a reason. What a world it would be if we all tried to be ourselves.