A trip to THE city to see a show

The first thing that strikes you when you walk out of the subway is the size of...everything. You are forced to just stop and reacquaint yourself with what you previously understood as the proper scale for everything. Once you have done this you can keep walking and you become acclimated to it, but the sense of awe never really goes away. It is a similar experience to jumping into the ocean in September: the water is freezing and the fact that the water is cold doesn't go away, but you get used to how cold it is...sorta.

We were going to the city to see the show Billy Elliot, which I knew to be "musical something something dancing something something good". In other words I had now idea what I was going to see, but it turned out to be an amazing show about a working class boy in northern England and his quest to join the Royal Ballet School in the mid-1980's. Marvelous show, I encourage everyone how has the chance to see it.

I hadn't been to the city in a month, but then I was going to visit my (now ex) girlfriend and my mind was on other things, plus it was still light outside when I went. Going into the city this time, however, my mind was on the other cities I had visited in recent memories: Boston and Philly.

Philly had been grey, intelligent, and had a sense of beauty that is most similar to watching an elephant move: large, graceful, and majestic. Boston was fun and hip with tall shapely architecture and a one letter subway name.

New York City, however, is different.

NYC is THE city.

At the beginning of freshman year people from all over the country all came together and there were many of them who weren't from the northeast. There were also some who lived near major cities, so they were all very confused when people would say, "I went into the city." As if everyone knew what they were talking about. These people quickly learned that "the" city was New York City, and everything else was just called buy it's real name. By the end of the year people would say they went to visit a friend in Boston or they went to visit a friend in Philly, but they never went to visit a friend in "New York City". No no no. The went to visit a friend in THE city.

And growing up near the city sorta ruins every other city for you. Nothing is a big or grand as NYC. Which is why I affectionately call Boston: Bostontown, for it is not a real city like NYC is.

What made this trip to the city different than ones past was that I was getting there at night and at night in the city it is brighter than during the day. And everything is illuminated. Everything.

So I walked out of the subway station to street level at 42nd street and looked up...and up...and up to the billboards bigger than my university's tallest building. Light that made the subway seem like a dark cave. Buildings that made the ceiling of everywhere seem retroactively claustrophobic. A child past by me and pointed up and said, "Wow mommy! Look how big it is!!!" I myself stopped in awe at the mass of buildings color and light, because unless you see it everyday, it really is a shock to the system.

And you really have to take a moment to look and try and take in how big everything around you is, otherwise you might fall over dizzy trying to comprehend it all!