A Home For A Sister

Art by Rita Chen, staff artist

Living in New York is like having a sister. You fight, you hate each other, you’re forced to live together and to accept each other’s differences, you’re even happy when you get to leave home and not see them for a while. But, not long after you leave, you miss them. You miss their voice, their attitude, their company. And that’s how it’s been for me in New York.

Two years ago I was a stranger to this place that would become my home. I was anxious, I cried like a baby, I didn’t know how to adjust. Then slowly, the people I met became family, the SoHo apartment became home, and New York became mine.

I love to see the snow falling from my window during the winter and then get absolutely enraged when I have to walk through the slush on the street. I find the beauty in the old, beaten down, historic buildings of downtown, but regret living in one every time I have to walk up five flights of stairs with ten grocery bags. I marvel at the amount of people who live in this city, yet get annoyed when there are too many people on the sidewalk.

In short, New York is a city of contradictions. No one who lives in New York thinks New York is the greatest city in the world; we see all its flaws, just as a sibling sees her sister’s flaws better than anyone. Yet, no one who lives in New York would rather live anywhere else. There is a bond stronger than geography that goes beyond the surface and connects each one of us to all the cracks, smells, and sights of this city, and to each other. It’s cosmic. I’ve been all over the world, to the most famous cities you can think of, and still there’s an excitement that fills my heart at the thought of coming home, of hearing random screams in the middle of the night, of seeing into my neighbor’s window and them seeing into mine, of being unashamedly obnoxious in the streets with my friends at ungodly hours. It’s a hard place to fit into, but the best thing about it is that you can be anyone at all and still fit in, you just have to be strong enough.

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Chiara Caremoli is majoring in Media, Culture, and Communications and minoring in Creative Writing at NYU, planning to graduate in May 2023. Her interest in writing began in the fourth grade when she wrote a short story called “My Best Friend’s Horse," but sadly her literary work stopped there for many years. Her senior year in high school, her English teacher assigned everyone a creative short story project and her mind started racing with ideas. When she sat down and stared at the empty page on the computer, her fingers began clicking away at the keyboard and the blank page quickly filled. Chiara's goal is to become a politically and socially aware woman who is able to educate herself and her peers to create a more empathetic community through writing.

Rita is a senior at Bayview Secondary School in Ontario, Canada. Although her parents (and the tumultuous state of the job market) have endlessly advised her not to, she has decided to pursue a career in the arts. She enjoys drawing, writing, and playing Animal Crossing in the little free time she has.