My new York.
Moniruz Zaman
Arch 3522
New York City, for me, is a place where everyone is responsible for everything. Ranging from social issues, to even how the city looks is an automatic and subconscious concern for everyone living here. Any issue that rises at any time, you can find thousands of other people standing up for the same cause. There was a time where issues such as recycling, sustainability, homosexuality, etc. were not spoken about, but when a few people stood up for it, thousands joined the movement. Everyone in New York City is somehow interconnected and somehow has an impact on each other. Nobody is alone here. My idea of an interconnected New York City did not exist a few years ago, during high school, when I thought that New York City was just a place for opportunities for everyone. I figured that everyone should just stay within their own circle of friends and just get whatever they wanted to do over with. Have a few friends, get a degree, get a job, have a small family, and that is all a person needs to do in new York city. But in reality, everyone is responsible for each other. If one person robs, steals, murders, does a good deed, recycles, protests for good, vote for mayors, it affects every other New Yorker. If one person does not raise a child properly, then he is, statistically, assisting his child in becoming a criminal, which in fact affects everyone on the city. It was actually when my mind matured and went through epiphanies of sorts, when I began looking at everything throughout my day in a totally different perspective. When an elderly person comes into the train and I am sitting down, if I do not give up my seat, I am unintentionally representing every other young adult to be a greedy and ignorant. In New York City, nothing is about an individual anymore; everyone becomes part of a general group. So the next time you do something, remember that you are not representing yourself, but also New York City, your orientation, your ethnicity, your age group, and everything else in between.
