The Beauty and the Beast in New York

I dreamed of New York for years before I actually made it there.

And when I was fortunate enough to finally visit, I found it was not as I had anticipated. The city did not twinkle all the time. In fact, only a few parts of it did, and we had to seek them out.

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I enjoyed the city, but I soon learned that finding loveliness in New York took a lot of energy. And even though I was only in my twenties at the time, I didn’t know if I had the stamina.

But I kept going back. I didn’t want to give up on a city I had dreamed about for so long. Yes, huge portions of it were filthy and crowded. It was easy to dismiss them, and for a long time, I did.

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But time passed. I realized that the New York of my dreams didn’t exist, but a living, breathing city did.

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And soon, I began to see it for what it really was. I saw beauty in the grit. I saw poetry in every rusted bolt.

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And once I started to see that, the city began to twinkle, all over again.

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