In December 2001, my friends and I – a fast-talking Yankee from Maine, a homesick Dutch woman, and me, a small-town Pennsylvanian girl – were desperately trying to pass our first exams as college freshmen. It had been a rough fall with the 9/11 attacks and everything, and NYC was very much on our minds. Once our last exam was done, Kim suggested “Why don’t we go to NYC and see the holiday decorations?”
So we did, even as broke as we were. We took the four hour train ride to the City sharing chocolate and candy canes along the way. Then, we spent the day wandering around the city, seeing the tree at Rockefeller and the window displays at Macy’s. None of us had ever been to NYC before and it was incredible – the lights, the crowds, the sounds. And even with everything that had happened, it still felt like Christmas in the biting chilly air and in the twinkle of lights as we strolled through Times Square in the early evening. We split a real NY style pizza that evening and swapped our small presents among ourselves. I remember I got a coffee mug with a polar bear on it, one of my favorite animals, with a hot chocolate mix to accompany it. Afterwards we raced across town to catch the last train of the evening back. We went home laughing, relaxed and feeling that little bit better about Christmas that year.
Written by guest blogger “Kelv”.
