It’s the place singers sing about, the place writers write about, the place that countless actors/comedians/performers/entrepreneurs/directors go to “make it big.”
“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”
New York City.
And I’m here!
Two weeks ago (editor’s note: it’s been a little more than two weeks ago at this point 🙂 ), when my internship officially started that Monday, I was acquainted with New York City’s finest underground transportation system – the subway! – for only the second time in my life. But luckily the first time I was with friends who actually, you know, were familiar with the city…instead of me, in my business casual attire, standing alone and looking like a fish flopping around on land, basically. Read: I did not look like a native…at all.
So, literally the first subway ride that I took escalated into an immature, laughably ridiculous fight. I was thinking to myself beforehand, Can’t the universe give me a nice, calm introduction to the bowels beneath the city? Please? But the universe was like, “Nuh-uh.”
Some younger woman/teenager in her late teens or early twenties, with blond hair covered by oversized, colorful headphones and baggy pants, apparently bumped into a middle-aged African-American guy while getting onto the Times Square Shuttle. What happened was up there with one of the most intelligent (*sarcasm*) exchanges probably ever uttered on the subway (even though as I type this, I realize that I’m really not qualified to make such a statement since the subway is still such a mysterious thing to me). But anyway, it went something like:
“You hit me.”
“YOU hit ME.”
“Stupid b*&#t. Karma gonna kill you.”
“YOU’RE STUPID. You’ll never do anything.”
“Back off.”
“YOU back off.”
“Shut up.”
“YOU shut up!”
“NO, you shut up!”
The fight continued with a few more repetitive, “No, YOU *insert insult/insulting phrase here*” back-and-forth comments. Other people were laughing, but I was mostly shocked. Look away; don’t make eye contact; they can sense your fear, irrational commands kept jumbling up inside my brain. I got off in a panic. Some homeless-looking guy, with a shopping cart filled to the brim with trash bags, gave me a toothless grin. I made the mistake of looking his way. He laughed, “You have no idea where you are or where you goin’.” He said it as a statement, not a question.
He was right.
First official day: Subway (1), Caitlyn, (0).
Tune in next time to hear more subway-related escapades involving a large, airplane-approved suitcase and a smelly man singing “Jailhouse Rock” in my face.
Rodent sightings: one small mouse in my dorm (not okay)
Celeb sightings: 5.5
Superhero sightings: one overweight Spider-man in Times Square
~Caitlyn Goodhue
