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Though I call myself a "New Yorker," I am not actually from the city. People from the suburbs of NYC have this tendency to identify as participants in city life, even if they never have held residence there. Perhaps it is the connotation attached to being an urbanista that persuades a suburbanite to identify as a city-dweller. I can navigate the subway lines, I can distinguish between the various neighborhoods, and I can boldy cross a street when a "Do Not Walk" sign is illuminated. Don't these things make me an urbanite?

New York possesses this dual nature of being quintissentially American while also being nothing like the rest of America. If The United States is the land of dreams, New York is the city where those dreams come true (sorry, Disneyworld). People from all over the world travel to New York to achieve greatness, and while many are unsuccessful in this pursuit, a few do attain their goals. The uncertainty of what the city has in store for those who live or visit there is what continuously draws diverse people to its environs. People from New York like to think of the city as the superlative American city. It's the most cultured, it's the biggest, it's the most fashionable, it's so busy that it never even sleeps. It so far surpasses all else found in this country, that it almost can't be categorized as a part of it. When the French hear you are from America, they pity (or detest) you. Yet when they hear you are from New York, they envy you.

To me, New York truly is an enviable city. The food, the history, the people, the architecture, the pace- you cannot find a combination quite like it anywhere else. Especially not 40 miles north, in the suburbs.