I was 13 when I first set foot on Manhattan Island. My mom and aunt would make the trip from Harrisburg often for shopping or matinee. I’ll never forget the culture shock of that first moment outside of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The flock of pigeons the fleet of taxis and the ever-present ‘White Noise,’ the pervasive hum of the city; the electric energy of life rebounding off the canyon walls. I was immediately and forever in love with that city.

We did the standard tourist routes: Wall Street, Chinatown, the Village, Empire State Building, Herald Square, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, Central Park. I remember walking along Park Avenue and asking, “Mom, why is everyone running?” She laughed, “That’s the way people here walk.”

That evening on the bus home I fell asleep, exhausted, euphoric. I dreamed of glass skyscrapers. Someday, I would live in New York City. I did. At 18, I went to Long Island University in Brooklyn and lived and worked in New York for seventeen years. I live in New Jersey now – don’t ask – but I would not trade one moment of those exciting years in The City for anything.

Now, whenever I visit, the magic of Manhattan returns. However briefly, the magic always returns. As is said, once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker. Thanks for your article!