Pempel 1

Erin Rose Pempel

Cartee

English 105

10/6/2021

New York

Alecia Keys sings in “Empire State of Mind” that “These streets will make you

feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Hear it for New York”. New York is loved by many,

including myself. Both my mom and dad grew up on the north and south sides, and so did the

rest of my family all except for me. When I was little, I could sit in my mom’s lap on the plane,

and we would fly up two or three times a year and as I have gotten older it has been less and less.

No matter how many times I go, I never get tired of my favorite city!

The streets are littered with trash and crowed with people. You can smell every

restaurant’s leftover food in the trash for a mile, but there is something that keeps bringing me

back. Maybe it is the loud and jagged music that you can hear up and down the streets played by

street performers, who you would never guess by looking at them have real full-time jobs.

Perhaps it could be all those things together. I love every aspect of it, especially all the places we

go, like the M&M store that smells so sweet and is filled with so many vibrant and colorful

towers of tiny chocolates. The restaurant that my grandpa always takes us to. We don’t know the

name because there is not one. Only the address brings us back for the spiciest Cajun seafood

pasta, stacked with huge juicy shrimp and scrumptious sauce. The Museum of Natural History

that is filled creepy mummies and thousands of old bones and fossils, that are so old that if you

touched them, they would crumble to pieces. Walking into each section feels like you are time
 Pempel 2

traveling back into ancient Greece with shiny golds and blue and white patterns, or the Mesozoic

Era full of millions of year old dinosaurs.

Maybe what brings me back is my family’s side trips to visit my family on Long Island.

Where my dad will take the whole family out on the clear blue water in a boat. Me, my brother,

and all my cousins sitting around on the floor of the boat. Feeling the water splash in our faces as

the sun beats down on us. As we laugh at my dad for wearing his silly captain hat, I can feel the

breeze in my hair and smell the salty sea. There is always such excitement for when my brother

pulls a slimy, stinky fish out of the ocean and throws it in our ice-cold cooler. Seeing the Fire

Island Lighthouse with it’s amazingly tall thick white and navy stripes that scrape the sky. It is

always a treat, especially on a scorching hot day, because we know we will stop by the island to

get the best most delectable chocolate chip ice-cream you have ever had in your whole life.

Perhaps it is the presence of thousands of different cultures all melting into one pot

It could be the lights that sparkle in the nights around the Broadway marquees that shine as

bright as the sun. Seeing the lights makes me feel magical and starstruck in a way. Being in a

place where I know I fit in brings me so much joy. The Broadway shows I have longed to see

since I was little all staring right back at me in big bold letters. Seeing the performers in the street

that I know have the job that I want some day. I can see the stunning actors and actresses that I

have been looking up to since I was a naive third grader, who thought she knew everything about

Broadway. My favorite thing I have ever done in New York was seeing my first Broadway pro-

duction. It was Tootsie staring my most favorite actor, Santino Fontana. Walking into the theatre

and seeing the biggest stage I had ever seen. Sitting down in the soft red velvet seat. And when

those first few notes of the overture start gives you the most tingly sensation and I already knew

how good that show would be. I hate to say it, but I cannot see that here in Alabama.
 Pempel 3

New York has always been and will always be my favorite place. No matter where I go it

will be my home. All the sights, sounds, and movement are what make me love it most. No

matter how many times I go, I never get tired of my favorite city!