New York I Love

My first visit to NY wasn't so pleasant - someone broke into our car at night and stole everything, including my #1 possession at the time... my CD player. So why exactly did I fall in love with this city? I don't know. It was like love at first sight.

Because I had landed a summer internship on Wall Street, New York for me was a symbol of my years of hard-working and also of my parents' pride in me. But after a couple of days of carrying the company badge that looked too cool to be true at first, New York became more than the city of finance for me. It created a place of its own in the corner of my heart.

People called me a New Yorker but I never quite figured out what that meant. Yes I lived in New York, I enjoyed the city night life, and explored countless corners with my Nikon camera but I guess 3 months wasn't enough for me to be completely immersed into the city life. Yes, the city life looks so fancy in movies and TV shows like Sex and the City but New York in my heart means more than a closet full of brand-name shoes and fancy Sunday morning brunches (although I do plan on keeping up with this tradition when I finally settle down next month).

New York is extraordinary because you can never stay the same in this city. New York fits me because the life THE CITY closely resembles one of my favorite quotes, and my motto, "When you are finished changing, you are finished" by Benjamin Franklin.  New York is also awesome because you get to create something of your own and call it your HOME.


So there, that's why I'm going on this 7-hour bus ride to find a perfect room where I can dream my dream for the next... who knows how many years. Yes, I might complain about the city and run away to a different city for a couple of days sometime. And I will change for sure during my years as a "New Yorker." But one thing is for sure: I'm following my heart.

New York, New York
August, 2011

Is this fair?

We went around shopping in this street market in India

while this man dragged his disabled body and begged for some change
with what's left of his body.

Is this fair?



I came back from India with mixed emotions. My India trip was more academic and business oriented. India has received tremendous attention from all around the globe as one of the star emerging markets. But the India I had imagined in the classrooms of Georgetown and the India I had sketched out based on the newspaper articles and other reading materials was nothing more than a proof of my ignorance.

I've seen beggers before, those with no legs or arms, dragging their bodies through the crowd of people who seemed so busy to get to their destinations and paid no attention to these people for whom even $1 would mean the world. But living in the US and Korea, and traveling around the European countries, I've never encountered beggers with exposed amputated legs or arms. They were always hidden, as if they were the reasons for "normal" people's disdain... for this man, and for others who came up to us in similar shapes, their amputated legs were the reasons why they had to be out on the street and the sources of their income simultaneously. To some people these amputated legs are what makes them "inferior," what an ignorance.

What makes us better than this man whose soul has escaped from his eyes?

the girls picking the lice out of their mom's hair in front of a luxurious shopping center?

boys knocking on our car window with what seemed to be fake blood running down his face?

To me, nothing. If anything, we owe them.