Personal Narrative: Moving To New York

Throughout my life I have been traveling to and from New York and it has pretty much became a regular part of my life. I have left and came back multiple times over the years, from going on vacations to moving for good, but the most significant time was when I was moving out of New York when I was a kid. My parents had a reason to move down to Philadelphia so they decided that’s what we were going to do. Since I was born here and spent most of my early childhood here, the thought of living somewhere else was strange to me, as it would for almost any kid at that age, and I didn’t really know how life would be like outside of the neighborhood where I’m from. The part of New York where I grew up at was very neighborhoody in the Bronx, everyone

The neighborhood we moved to seemed like a little bigger version of our little neighborhood in the Bronx, so I thought it wouldn 't be too bad, and I even began to think this could be like home. However, like whenever you move somewhere new, you always have to make adjustments, and this was no different. Having to go to a new school in a new city without knowing anyone was scary at first, especially for your first year of middle school, but I made the adjustment rather quickly. The area I was in, was South Philadelphia, it also, like the Bronx, had a small neighborhood feeling to it, so even though at first it seemed like it would be way different, over time it turned out to be pretty good. It had a lot in common with what I was used to in the Bronx, from the markets to the food even to the people. The one thing that really helped me adjust was how small Philly felt compared to New York. For instance, Philly only has two real subway lines, so you could get from one side to the city in another in almost twenty to thirty minutes, you couldn’t even get out of a borough in that amount of time in New York. Another thing is that my family and I would go back up at least once a month at least for the first couple years for Holidays and just to see everyone, so it wasn’t like I was ever very far away. I ended up adjusting pretty good to Philly, especially once the time high school came around, I ended up meeting people who are some of my best friends now, and I was really grateful for the time I lived there. In the end, I ended up overall really liking Philadelphia, but it still just wasn’t New York for me, I still missed it and felt like I needed to go back. After high school, I thought about it and felt that ultimately I wanted to go back to New York, so that 's what I ended up doing for