Blog 2: Response to Lauren Epperson

I go up to New York every year during the summer. My mother and I drive there, it’s a 12 hour trip but that all depends if you hit Washington traffic. We go to see my God parents in Long Island. It’s probably my favorite drive, I guess if I had to pick anywhere to drive to. I love driving though the different cities and seeing the different geography. But ultimately what makes me so excited is when we cross the Brooklyn Bridge into the City. You can see the skyline and underneath you is the traffic driving in the opposite direction. When the lights are all lit it’s my favorite view. I feel like a kid in the candy shop when I see it or like I could do anything. Somehow I feel most at home, most like “this is where I belong” when I cross the Bridge. I assume this is what makes New York, New York. As often as I went up to New York I never visited Ground Zero. I would not see it until my sophomore year of high school.

I went on a school trip up to New York (like every school) with my Drama Class (like every Drama Group too). The intention was to go see Broadway and learn about acting and the actual process of auditioning and what it’s like for actors in the real world. The class made an impromptu trip to Ground Zero. It was seven years later before I saw the memorial. It did not look much like the pictures one might see. There was a giant hole in the ground. A lot of construction items (trucks, tools, etc.). To look at it there was an observatory, kind of like a balcony overlooking the construction in the adjacent building. It was kind of surreal. It sounds stupid because seven years later one would think this would not hit you as it does. When you look at it it’s kind of like wow. It’s different seeing it in person rather than through a screen or from a person. It is something that stays with you unlike anything else.

But anyhow the skyline. The most amazing one in the world is now somewhat lost. Yet I still kind of feel like it never looked more beautiful than it does now. It sounds cheesy but I still get that excited feeling of being there as I travel over the Bridge. I know that New York, America will come back better than ever. Our skyline will only improve. Because not only will the new buildings be better, prettier, more architecturally sound but filled with more meaning and love than the other ones. I look at the skyline and personally think that New York has more to offer and can still be the best without the twin towers. And I still don’t feel like I do going over the Bridge, looking at the skyline with the traffic underneath and the lights into New York anywhere else.

-GDP