What It Means to Be a New Yorker
Only after going away for college did I fully understand what being a New Yorker means.
What does it mean to be a New Yorker?
Some people argue that you were born here. You had your green student metrocard. You knew your Subway stops and where to transfer before you could read.
I fit all of those categories. But I never felt like more of a New York than when I left New York.
I am now in my second semester at the University of Wisconsin. Recently a professor asked us to write down what we’re looking forward to in the next few months and what our goals are. I started scribbling down things like “develop better study habits” and “keep making friends.”
The next item was “feel peace in Madison.” One thing I have been struggling with was that as much fun I had at any given moment, it would soon be followed by feelings of longing for my city. Whether it was the simplicity of riding the subway, walking down Broadway and commenting on a new business moving in, or a night spent at Coney Island with my best friends, throughout my time in Madison, during my daily routine I think fairly often that it is “not New York.”
In that moment I realized being a New Yorker means always longing for your city when you’re away, looking for a sliver of home to tide you over until you’re back. It means having lunch with a political-candidate-you-once-volunteered-for’s sister who lives in Madison so you can discuss New York politics and have that piece of you back.
It means counting down the days until your tattoo artist, who grew up in Madison but now lives in New York, comes to town for a pop-in, bringing with him another small piece of New York and another tattoo that can join the growing gallery that is your body, slowly getting more and more covered in New York landmarks (up next is the Wonder Wheel).
It means having brunch with another Badger who was introduced to you by a New York Political journalist (although I’ll be honest he is now a friend) to lovingly trash talk said journalist (still accept my pitches please journalist who shall not be named).
It means planning a weekend to Chicago to hang out with your friend who begrudgingly moved there from Brooklyn in the last year, rearranging work schedules and spending hours on a bus to see someone who reminds you of home.
There are a lot of things that make someone a New Yorker, but my time away has taught me that the thing that matters most is missing the City when you’re gone. That, and having had a student metrocard.