Today I realized I’m in love with New York City. I was walking across town from Central Park West back to York, listening to my iPod and watching the people go by. It’s a beautiful day today, and the Park was beautiful and the wind that blew was beautiful and when I exited on Fifth Ave and I saw all these beautiful, crazy people I almost started crying. Everyone was dressed their best to celebrate Spring, and there was a teacher in designer shoes leading a group of kids past the Ukrainian Culture Institute, and a tiny girl in an expensive shirt and sweat pants walking four huge dogs and a construction worker who whistled at me as I walked by, and a black nanny yelling at her little white charge, and a doorman arguing with a delivery guy and everyone was absolutely different and they were all so absorbed in their lives and all walking around me and I really did start to cry. It’s a walk I’ve walked a thousand times but today it was special because today I realized that I’m leaving for college in Chicago soon and I’m going to spend the rest of my goddamned life trying to get back to this city. Today was the first day I really understood why my parents spent all their time in St. Louis complaining about the pizza and why my aunt starts shaking when she gets too far from Union Square and is physically incapable of living in Queens. Today is the first day I understood why someone would pay a million dollars to live in a closet here and today is the first day that I realized I would do the exact same thing. Today I walked home crying, and I love that in this beautiful, wonderful, lovable city, nobody gave a shit.