This is the very last installment in my 'Last Summer' post series, which makes me a bit sad. It's been so fun reliving all of the fun times I had on these trips. But, today's post is quite an exciting one, because I'm going to be telling you about the time I went to New York City!
It all started at the beginning of last year. Keds (the shoe company) announced that they were going to be hosting an essay competition- If you won you would receive a grant to fly out to NYC, and attend the first ever Keds Brave Life Summit. I enter competitions like this all of the time, and usually nothing ever happens, but I figured why not give this a try. So, I sat down and typed up a quick essay about a time in my life when I was 'brave', which was hard. It's strange trying to write about how awesome you think you are, but with a little help from my mom I had it finished in just a few hours.
I spent the next few months constantly refreshing my email, but nothing ever came. I began to think that I hadn't been chosen, which wasn't very surprising; but, just as my hope began to die out I received an email with the subject line: News- Your Brave Life Summit Application. At first I didn't want to open it. What if it was a rejection email? After much consideration though, I decided to open it, and the first thing I read was 'Big news- You have been selected...' I didn't believe it. I read it at least five times all the way through before it really began to sink in. Then, once I realized that this was really happening, and it wasn't some sort of cruel practical joke I ran to tell my mom and dad. I was so happy! I don't think I've ever been as happy as I was in that moment.
Then just two months later my mom and I were boarding a plane to head to NEW YORK CITY. We landed on a Thursday, and left on a Monday, so we had the entire weekend to explore. Neither I nor my mom had ever been to New York City, so we kind of made everything up as we went along (which I would say made it even more fun).
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| The pizza was just as delicious as I hoped it'd be. |
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| The 9/11 Museum |
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| The Statue of Liberty looked much smaller than I was expecting. |
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| The view from our hotel room. |
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| My very first Broadway musical! |
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| One of my favorite places we visited- The NY Public Library. |
The first day we didn't do much due to the fact that it took ages to leave the airport and find our hotel, but that was definitely not the case for the following four days. Each day we left the hotel around sunrise, and came back well past sunset. We wanted to be sure that we saw as much as we could see while we were there (which we definitely did). We saw... The Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, Central Park, The New York Public Library, Times Square, The 9/11 Museum, and much much more. I won't go on too much about all of these places because this post is already so long, but there are a few things I want to say. First of all, Central Park was so much bigger than I thought it was! We could have spent days getting lost in there. This was also where my mom surprised me with tickets to Wicked, so it will forever be one of my favorite places, even if I never see it again. The Statue of Liberty looked much smaller than in the movies, but was still amazing to see. And lastly, the 9/11 Museum is definitely something you should make the time to go see if you ever find yourself in New York.
I made so many wonderful memories on this trip, and the fact that my mom was able to come with made it even more special. This is a trip that I will definitely always always always remember.
-Melissa P. Cooper
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