NYC Since 2003

I traveled to New York for the first time at the age of eight. The year was 2003, P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent played on the radio, and I was at the budding start of my awkward phase. I emerged from the plane in denim on denim topped with the freshest bucket hat (reference photo above). I was with my great Aunt and mother, who together wanted to introduce this gawky third grader to the world outside suburban Portland, Oregon. My sense of style has since changed (although I wouldn’t be opposed to running it back every so often) and NY has seen some change of its own. Bellow are just a few examples:

2004 - Sister city relationship established with Brasília, Brazil.

2006 - April: One World Trade Center construction begins.

2007 - Beaver José, the lone Bronx beaver, was spotted in Bronx River.

2009 - January: US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River after both engines fail; all 150 passengers are successfully evacuated.

2009 – I return to New York, but as an 8th grader and decked out in Abercrombie.

 2011 - September: Occupy Wall Street begins.

2017 – February: Williamsburg Bites A BROOKLYN FOOD TOUR begins (the best day 2017 has probably seen)

2017 – May: UO Creative Week begins, and I return in 18th grade or whatever a senior in college is. Visiting agencies is now more exciting than visiting the American Girl Store and I’m no longer ordering off the kid’s menu (although that would be nice sometimes). My time here has already reminded me that perspectives change, but the childhood excitement of being in a big city doesn’t always have too.

Mary Beth Carroll