Personal Narrative Essay : A Trip To New York City

I had never been on an airplane. My stomach felt like I had just eaten rotten fish and I was about to throw up. I was so excited to go, but at the same time I was scared because I had never been on a plane. We waited in the airport for at least an hour. Finally our flight was called, as I walked on the plane my heart was about to jump out of my skin. After the flight attendant had went through all the rules and we put our seat belts on the plane was going to take off. I thought the worst thing about the flight was taking off and landing. I didn?t like taking off and landing because my ears popped. Other than the fact that my ears popped taking off and landing the flight went smooth, we didn?t crash. When the plane landed, I couldn?t wait to stand on solid ground again.

What laid in my hand was my literal golden ticket to the world. This small, flimsy card could take me anywhere I wished to go to in New York City but I didn’t enjoy this privilege all my life. I grew up in a neighborhood where my family and I 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. Unfortunately, my parents could neither drive nor afford many rides on our MetroCard. I had seen places like the Empire State Building and Central Park merely in pictures so the inner adventurer in me yearned to see what was outside Brooklyn.

New York is a state where there are big lights and lots of people and busy streets. I live in Brooklyn, New York and I was born here and I have lived here all my life. Personally, where I live I can walk to go get groceries that I need and everything is in walking distance. I take the public subway or the bus to get to school and there are many public schools here in Brooklyn, New York. There are delis and corner stores almost around every block. Here in Brooklyn, it is very noisy and busy. I am so used to the noise that I can sleep soundly even with all the noise that surrounds my house. Personally, I think that if I were not born here or was not a New Yorker, I would plan to move here when I get older.

I have written many essays since I was in middle school yet most of my writing was not that important besides for a grade. Yet there is one piece of writing I wrote that change my life and felt that it had an important impact to The City of Chicago. My teacher during that time wanted the class to enter in a citywide competition, which is called “Do The Write Thing”. It is a way for students to voice their opinions on how to stop the violence in Chicago. I wanted to help reduce the violence in Chicago since many youths are being killed in the streets every single day. In my paper, I mainly focused on three body paragraphs. The first one was why the violence in the city was increasing. The second one was some type of violence that I have witness in my own personal life. The final paragraph

The city of Chicago has been displayed as a dangerous city in which all residents are affiliated with drugs, gangs, and misconduct of firearms. Whether someone fits into this stereotype or not, is normally based on their surroundings and their interactions with others. Growing up in Gage Park, named one of the worst neighborhoods, falling into this stereotype and becoming affiliated with drugs, guns, and gangs, would not be too hard for someone to do. However, I have lived in Gage Park my whole life and have not fallen into the status quo. I have had family members and friends fall into this realm of unpleasantness and watching them become another wrong kind of statistic is upsetting. I have been faced with the decision of continuing to have

It was June of 2013 and I was in my room cooling, watching “Good Luck Charlie”. My mom came into my room saying that she was ready to move out of New York. Obviously I did not want to move out of the city I was born in. My mom never liked living in New York, so she always thought about moving. So the plan was to move in August. Time went by and I was thinking about what North Carolina would be like. I really wasn’t thinking about the friends I was leaving in Brooklyn, that never crossed my mind.

Ten, twenty, thirty minutes… I don’t know, I’d dozed off at some point and I couldn't say for certain. Not that it mattered, while I’d been out the landscape of the city had changed, and as I woke up we were at the end of a transition from tall, multi-level glass-faced office buildings, to lower and more squat buildings mostly made up of concrete and metal. The beauty of the city was still there, trees lined the and vibrant planters ran on either side of the road and we passed the occasional cleaning robot keeping the area litter free, but there were fewer pedestrians about and more trucks or cargo vehicles rather than passenger types.

My dad and I had always lived in New York City. After 15 years of experience and the guidance of my older brother, you could say that I knew my way around town. The coffee shops with the best lattes, the highest swinging swing sets in every park, and most importantly, the buildings with the best views. You would think that after living here for so long I would get sick of seeing the view of the city every day, but it just never gets old. The best spot is at the top of my apartment building, on the far northeast corner, looking over the horizon and onto the Hudson. There was no other way of completing my day, no matter the rain, snow, or blazing heat I sat on that rooftop every night as the sun disappeared, along with the overworked New Yorkers for the night. The most interesting part is, every single night, the color of the sky is always slightly different. No sunset was ever the exact same. Anyways, as I was walking back down the stairs to my condo, 7B, I got the jitters in my stomach, I was beyond excited for tomorrow, the first day of Winter Break. My older brother, Todd, was taking me and my best friend Hannah up to Vermont to go skiing. I opened our apartment door, took a quick shower, and fell asleep with Cooper on my lap while watching Full House.

There was only one week before I left for my trip to the Bahamas. My dad had already booked our trip and he told me we were staying in the little hotel across the street from the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. To be honest I was pretty upset about it. Although before leaving for our vacation I was given the great news from my dad that we were not staying at the hotel across from the resort and we were actually staying at the huge Atlantis Royal Towers section of the Atlantis Resort with a great view. This news had completely brightened my day. Two days after finding out the fantastic news we left for the airport at around three o’clock in the morning. We flew out of O’Hare International Airport so we had to ride on a tram to get the airport where something happened that, to me, is rather coincidental. Since it was only three in the morning there was no one on the tram except for my parents and I, along with a young couple. Once we got off the tram we made our way to the gate for our flight to Miami, Florida to board the connecting flight to Nassau. When we got on the plane we recognized the people in our row as the same young couple we saw on the tram earlier in the morning! After landing and making our way to the connecting flight we noticed that the young couple from the flight was going to the Bahamas as well. I just thought that the encounter was a pretty interesting coincidence and is something that I will probably remember for quite a while.

My husband thought this to be a bit corny, but not me. How exciting it was to hail my first ever cab to the city. The taxi ride itself was long, but I was to busy to care, because I was taking in all of the sites like a vacuum. The true moment of the taxi ride came to be once we entered the city of Manhattan. The taxi driver was true to form by honking, speeding when allowed, and not caring if we cut off anyone during our drive. The traffic from the airport to the city was a big jumbled mess. I have never experienced traffic this bad before. I was so excited once our taxi man paid the toll to get into Manhattan. Paying that toll was like gaining access to a secret society. The city, it people and the buildings welcomed us with open arms.

Shoutouts to the only person whom has bear with my weird-self for the past four years non stop. From civics and careers to accounting, our first time in greasy hull, our trip to NY, from going to hockey games that I don't understand and thirsty Thursdays. Thanks for always being there for me Jake, there's no one I would rather share a bottle of jagger with

I went to Burger King with three friends. We walked a long way then I

The light to put our seatbelts on glowed as the captain spoke to us and flight attendants acted out safety instructions. At take-off my stomach was filled with butterflies, but I wasn't scared. My body was pushed into the seat but I pretended I was the captain of a fighter jet. When we were stable I discovered that flying wasn't that bad. And the ocean looked beautiful out the windows! I put on my CD player until the played the in-flight movie, Planet of the Apes. I didn't like it so I kept listening to my CD player all the way through dinner. I fell asleep but the sound of the captains voice woke me. He was telling us there was an hour left of the flight. Flight attendants asked us to stow away our bags and prepare for landing. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach again as I anticipated the landing. I felt the plane lose

Everybody is on or has been on a journey before. Being on a journey is very important because it gives you a goal or task that you want to accomplish. When you go on a journey you find is yourself through the experiences and obstacles that life throws at you. Throughout a journey, you are taught life lessons and have the capability of applying that new knowledge for the future for a better outcome. Sometimes, these life lessons challenge you and you ultimately succeed at the end. For the past 5 months, I have been on a journey as I have been learning a new instrument that I’ve always wanted to learn since I was a little kid. Being on this path has taught me many life lessons and how to stay focused on what really matters.

I woke up from my nap when I felt a light tap on my shoulder by my brother, Alex. He told me that it was time for the plane to begin its descent so I gathered my belongings and adjusted my seat until it was upright. As the airplane began to descend, I was filled with excitement and enthusiasm. I could feel so much energy rush through my veins as my ears popped and I finally heard the flight attendant say, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Singapore Changi Airport!”