As someone who sleeps really well as an adult, it always makes me laugh that growing up I suffered from constant nightmares and the worst insomnia. I never really addressed it – at some point it just went away – but I remember being nine or ten years old, waking up almost every night around 2 or 3 a.m.
At the time, I lived in an apartment in the projects on the sixth floor, facing the New York City skyline. We weren’t rich growing up – we were just really lucky. People pay millions of dollars for that view, and there I was, not even double-digit aged, awake at three in the morning, talking to the city that never sleeps.
I remember staring at it, watching lights flicker on and off, cars preoccupied on the highway, my entire apartment pitch black while the city was always awake – always there to say hello.
Maybe that’s why I love being entangled in Manhattan now, allowing myself to get lost, falling in love with a city that feels like it might be even more in love with you. I make it a point to wander into new corners, stare up at skyscrapers I’ll never climb, and watch sunsets from every direction possible.
People talk about their love for the city, but the truth is – it’s always been mine.
a work in progress 
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