Admissions Essay: A Trip To New York City

What lay in my hand was my literal golden ticket to the world. This small, flimsy card could take me anywhere I wanted to go in NYC. I grew up in a neighborhood where we didn’t need to travel far for a doctor’s checkup or a grocery run. My whole world consisted of a few streets in Brooklyn with all the things my family and I needed. The inner adventurer in me wanted to see the rest of the world. I saw places like the Empire State Building and Central Park only in pictures. My parents could not drive or afford many rides on our MetroCard. Therefore, I was confined to “exploring” the neighborhood I had grown up in. The perfect opportunity came along in my ninth grade History class when I received a project to write an essay on what I liked about New York City. How was I to answer this without even seeing the city? I was a
citizen here but I was no different from a tourist. So I set out to solve my problem and see the “city that never sleeps.” I started doing small chores around the house to earn some money in order to buy myself my own MetroCard. After two weeks, I had finally washed enough dishes to afford a few rides to explore the city. When I got my first MetroCard, I held it in astonishment. It was truly my own. My mom had offered to let me use her MetroCard to go visit Central Park for my project but it did not feel right to be handed the opportunity. I wanted to be able to say that my first venture out into the city was out of my own sweat. When I arrived at Time Square, I was overwhelmed. All the people rushing to go somewhere. All the cars honking their horns. All the lights shining brightly. I took a picture of everything because I wanted to remember those moments. I was like a tourist in my own city. Central Park was everything I had imagined it to be: children playing Frisbee, couples rowing boats, people walking their dogs. By the end of my day, I even ran out of storage on my camera because of all the pictures I had taken. Even, my legs turned sore from all the walking but I was content. At least I could say that I finally got to travel beyond my neighborhood. All those years of not being able to visit these places made this one moment more memorable. Now, I can travel in and out of the city without having to look twice at a map.
I am able to provide directions to tourists. I can write about what I love about New York City. It was scary for me to see so many people and cars at once back then but now, the same massive population and loud traffic resonates as a part of the identity of New York City. This trip led me to discover my inner love for exploration and experience. Since that first time, I have had many opportunities to travel and I take every one of them. In my collection, I have a Charlie Card; a Boston train ticket, a SEPTA key, a Philadelphia train ticket; a SmarTrip card, a Washington D.C. train ticket; in addition to my MetroCard. I want to expand my horizons as I move onto the next chapter of my life and going to college would be the perfect chance for me to do so. I will be prepared for the experiences and opportunities for exploration it would bring. Travelling has made me more open and less fearful of new environments. If it weren’t for that first venture, I would not have got to realize how much more of the world I plan to visit in the
future.