New York City is an Energy

As a non-New Yorker you always hear that New York City isn't like any other city, that it's an energy and a feeling. Before going to the city, I always called bullshit on this saying. How could a city be an energy? There's no way the city itself could be a physical feeling. 

I mean, I've been to Los Angeles more times than I could count and sure, I felt feelings there but the city itself had never left me feeling a physical feeling due to it's impression on me. At least, not in the way people painted their impressions of New York city. Los Angeles has always been my favorite city, not only because of the glamours neighborhoods like Hancock Park and Beverly Hills (though I know BH is technically it's own city), but because of the people who build the beautiful culture of the city. 

To me, nothing could compete with the magic of buying elote's from the man down the street, then going to get boba at night from a Taiwanese street food store. There's nothing more amazing then seeing the different ethnic enclaves that are stitched together to make up the fabric of LA. 

However, I recently got the chance to visit NYC and let me just say, it really is an energy. As much as I will always love Los Angeles, there really is no room for comparison with New York CIty. Not to say that one is better or worse than the other, just that they are so vastly different. 

Don't get me wrong, I still love Los Angeles and I alwas will. But, I don't think I can find the magical feeling of walking through the west village on a friday night bar hopping with a group of girls I met randomly on the street, having the most fun of my life anywhere else in the world. It's truly a New York specialty. 

The West village showed me that it's okay to throw myself out of my comfort zone and talk to different people, something I'd never dared to do before. Brooklyn taught me fun shouldn't be contained, and that you should let loose. Midtown taught me that even though life can be busy and hectic, you need to find the calm in the storm. The East Village taught me to be myself no matter what others may think of you. And finally, Staten Island taught me that the mundane persists even in chaos and magic. 

All this to say that I've never felt more alive then the 9 days I spent in New York City, and I can't wait till I go back.