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Sophie

Pair of Shoes

I love walking. I also grew up in New York City. In order to love New York you gotta love walking. The first time I ever got freedom was when my mom allowed me to walk from my school to the park across the street. I was 8 years old, wearing my glittery pink sketchers. In the 5th grade, I was allowed to walk around the neighborhood with my friends, I would always wear my checkered vans. And finally, when I turned 13 I got full access to the city - walking privileges everywhere (as long as I said where I was going). Walking was a big deal for my friends and me. For us “hanging out” was essentially walking around for hours. On weekends we would pick a spot to meet up at and explore the city from there.


59th Street was our go-to, partially because our high school was near Lincoln Center (66th St) but mainly because 59th Street is the center of Manhattan. The center of our universe. At 59th St there were multiple ways in which the “walk” could take us. If we went Downtown we could explore Times Square and maybe get more ambitious and make it into Chelsea. If we went up Uptown we could explore the Upper West Side and Riverside Park. But our favorite was going into Central Park and finding new adventures within it. A new tree to climb. A new tunnel to make echoes in. But the best part about Central Park was that at night after hours of walking, mud in our shoes, we would sit in Sheeps Meadow and look at the buildings along Central Park South. These buildings terrifyingly juxtaposed the peaceful park. Huge skyscrapers standing above us. A wild site.




buildings along Central Park South


When we got sick of 59th Street we would meet Downtown at Canal Street. Canal St was always a good met-up spot. We could head further south into Tribeca and eventually the Financial District. We could stay at Canal and enjoy Chinatown, or we could go Uptown into Soho and eventually Washington Square park in The Village. We could never go wrong. Every new street, new twist, brought something exciting around the corner. What we eventually realized is that no matter our starting point in any direction we could find something special.


The great thing about New York is no matter where you are, all you need is a pair of shoes to have a good time.



Walking across The Brooklyn Bridge


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Yuhan
Feb 17, 2022

Love ur title!

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