People say that the only thing that really matters is where you are going. I disagree. In one respect, as someone who has come very far very fast and met a lot of people in a relatively short life I can’t argue that destination isn’t important. But at the end of the day, even if you traverse to the ends of the Earth and smell the Devil’s asshole, it won’t mean anything if you don’t remember where you came from. This is why I HATE when people move somewhere, and do their utter best to lose their identity to the place. (Madonna, I am looking in your direction, and frankly, I am scared.)
New York is the absolute worst when it comes to this phenomenon. I have friends who moved here and became so obsessed with becoming a “New Yorker” that I don’t even recognize them anymore. They don’t recognize themselves, either. The same is true of any big city like Paris, London, Los Angeles, and even Miami. You can’t become part of a place, it has to become part of you. This is because every big city, no matter its size is made up of nothing but people. Those people are as diverse and unique as every single hair (of which there are 3) in my asscrack. Yes, we are talking a lot about assholes here, which is fitting.
I have only met a few actual New Yorkers in my life. One is 3-years-old, and the rest are from the outer boroughs. The one thing I have learned from them is that actual New Yorkers (meaning people that were born here) are gracious, kind, and generally awesome people. All the South Florida skanks that moved here and got jobs in advertising and now pretend that they aren’t chain-smoking and secretly pulling out all their hair behind closed doors are fooling themselves; nobody else but themselves.
I don’t ever want to be a New Yorker. I have embraced this place as my home of course, but they also say that home is where the heart is. My home exists in the hearts of all my friends and family – some of whom live here and some who don’t. Regardless, none of them will ever be New Yorkers because they, like me believe that you should define your environment, instead of letting your environment define you.
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