Personal Writing: Living In Both Texas And New York City Essay, Research Paper
Personal Writing: Living In Both Texas and New York City
Where a person was born or raised often plays an important role in their
lives.
There are often comparisons between a urban civilization to rural
civilization. Humans adopt to different environments that would be the most
suitable for their style of living. Society as a whole didn’t tell us where
civilization should take place. Choosing the right place for a living depends
on the matters of self preference and comfort. Throughout the last decade, I
was brought up in two different cities that are thousands of miles apart – - New
York City and Houston. The two cities are ranked among the top ten in state /
city population, yet there are structures and mainframes which we can soon
identify or relate with. Although it’s located in different regions, it was
beneficial to experience and to taste the variety in culture, way of life, and
the school system.
I was raised in the central Manhattan of the Big Apple, the city that
never sleeps. Mass transit and people had always flooded the streets and
intersections. It seemed like everyone were heading for different directions
and the citizens of New York City are too busy with their own affairs and does
have time to care of what’s going on in their surroundings. The citizens of New
York City would care less about the traffic safety and reading the traffic signs.
The smell of the city reminds me of the honey roasted peanut stands, a sweet
scent of aroma that would often fill up the neighborhood. When I close my eyes
and think deeply about NYC, there has been a chime in my head of the messengers
blowing their whistles to fight in the traffic while slicing left and right to
get to their destination. New York City taxi drivers are the “killers” of the
rush hour. Taxi drivers within the city are not afraid to use their horn. I
must give a great deal of respect to the New York City taxi drivers because they
are hard working citizens whom knows what they’re doing on the road and they are
always providing the fasted delivery from one place to another. Above all, I
attended private schools in near the Greenwich Village area of New York City.
It’s a small area called SOHO, similar to the street of New Orleans. I attended
two different catholic schools within five years span. Because most public
schools in NYC lacked the reputation in academic wise, my parents had to provide
$800 per month tuition for both my little brother and I. Even though religious
private-schools have the reputation of developing good students and teaching the
morals, the academic system had often been short behind compare to the public
schools. People who transfer to private schools often claimed that they had the
text done the material that’s been provided a year before.
During the courses of my 7th grade in grammar school. I was informed
that we would move to Texas. For some bizarre reason, the people up north have
always pictured the cowboys and horses in Texas. I was really upset for leaving
my friends and all the fond memories behind. I am a person who is willing to
accept the alternatives and to learn different cultures in life. I think life
is too short and everyone should take a bite out of everything. I moved to
Sugar Land Texas, in the year of 1991. The reason for the drastic alternative
was because of my grandfather, who was a senior citizen living by himself in
Taiwan. He visited Houston once or twice and strongly favored the climate here.
Above all, it’s a quiet neighborhood, perfect for retirement plans and elderly.
The neighborhood was a nice place but it lacked the public transportation that I
was used to back in the cities. Down here, almost everyone travel from point a
to point B with an automobile. I was under the age of having a license so I
often biked my way around the neighborhood within the five mile radius. I began
my first year and attended 8th grade at First Colony Middle School. I can say
it was the worst year of my life. I guess I felt homesick and didn’t want to
accept the dramatic change in my life. I was a city person, all of sudden I am
stuck with riding bicycle to school. It took me about a year to adopt the
environment. My parents had always stood besides me to walk me along. Not
until my freshmen year in high school did I start making friends and getting
into the social crowd.
The similarity between these two cities are the population density. New
York had always been on the top of the charts on people and immigrants. On the
other hand, Houston had been growing by large sum of in population during the
past few years. Both cities are populated and the high in crime rate. As a
matter of fact, I took a trip back to NYC on my spring break and I was amazed by
the changes of a new major. The streets had been cleaned and there are less
homeless people in the streets. Even though Sugar Land is not considered to be
a city yet, the population had been growing dramatically. Skyscrapers stood tall
in both cities and the office buildings can been seen from miles away as a
symbol of free enterprise and open opportunities.
On the other hand, both New York City and Houston have its uniqueness in
their characteristics. The people New York City are well diverse, unlike the
tradition of the southerner part of the states. People of the south refer to
the northerner to be “Yankees”. I can’t agree with the fact that the south is
culturally diverse too. I can relate to that because there are more Asians
located on the east and west coast of the states. The feeling of “being with
your own kind” had came across my mind for the first time when I moved to the
south. Up in the northern part of the region, people did not care much about
what racial group you’re attached with. But down here, it seem like a defense
mechanism. Transportation was another factor. Subways, taxi, and mass transit
city buses are everywhere in the city. Even though it was at a higher expense,
people of the city have less time to worry about how to get from one point to
another. In Sugar Land, a person without an automobile is just as bad as a
handicap on a wheelchair.
Although I lived in New York City for several years, I had to consider
myself as a Texan because I practically grew up here. From getting my license
to getting my first accident, I was raised from adolescent to adulthood in the
south. Even though there are many conveniences of living in the city, there are
many complications and crimes within. I was happy that I grew up here because I
was raised in a calm neighborhood, away from all the deception and chaos. If I
had would recommend to any people out there where to reside, I wouldn’t hesitate
to recommend Texas, the Lone Star State.