The City Never Slows Down, Neither Do We
My alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. I reluctantly climb out of bed to the glow of streetlights, brightening empty streets. I’m out the door by 6:30, and for a brief moment, it feels as if New York City is still. No honking horns, no barking dogs, no crowded streets. While the city is just beginning to wake up, my day has already started.
By the time lift has ended, the city is waking up. The quiet streets are replaced with people commuting to school, work, errands, and I’m back to blending in. I’m headed back to my apartment to get ready for a long day of classes and practice. This rhythm has become my new normal. Wake up, lift, class, practice, treatment, homework, sleep.
It seemed like it would be hard to adjust to understanding the intense demands of being a Division 1 athlete. Now add doing this in one of the busiest cities in the world, I thought it would be impossible to keep up. But if living in New York City has taught me one thing, it is that every day feels like you are moving just as fast as the environment around you. If anything, living in New York has forced me to not only survive in this routine, but to thrive in it.
Going to school in New York has taught me many valuable lessons that no classroom or field ever could. Growing up with a big family in a not so big house, I was rarely alone. Because of that, I became a pretty dependent person. Anytime I would do something or go somewhere in high school, I almost always needed someone to be with me. I hated being alone or keeping myself company. It was so unfamiliar that it felt extremely uncomfortable.
And there is nothing wrong with being a dependent person, but I began to notice that I struggled spending time by myself. It was uncomfortable being alone. And to be completely honest, that is not super healthy.
But going to school in the city forced me to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. There is so much to experience in the city and sometimes I find myself wanting to make plans when no one else is available. When that happened in high school, I simply canceled my plans. But now, instead of waiting for someone to come with me, I go anyway.
I’ve learned to navigate subways, explore new neighborhoods, try new restaurants, see new movies and Broadway shows, all by myself. Not only was it fun, it was necessary. Obviously, I still love doing things with my friends, but the city has given me the confidence to enjoy my own company. It has taught me to be my own best friend, a gift I do not think I could have received on this scale anywhere else.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, May 2026
As I began to grow more comfortable in my independence, I was starting to pick up on the other lessons New York was teaching me. One being extremely important as an athlete: perspective. There have been plenty of practices or games in my career where I walked off the field simply feeling defeated. Maybe I didn’t play my best. Maybe we lost a close game. Maybe I made a really big mistake.
When this happened to me in high school, I drowned in disappointment. I replayed every moment in my head, felt guilt, embarrassment. Ultimately, I carried this fear and frustration into this next practice, and the next game, and so on.
But in this city, it is almost impossible to stay stuck in that mindset. I leave the field and, on my walk home I am reminded that I am surrounded by millions of people living separate lives. It may seem silly, but I genuinely think on a smaller campus, I would find it much harder to separate my disappointment from the rest of my day.
But here, the city doesn’t stop just because I do. Life moves forward with the same chaos, completely unaware of whether I had a great game or a poor one. One bad game doesn’t stop the city from moving, and everywhere I look is a reminder that I must keep moving too.
In learning how to move forward regardless of the good or bad days, I have found that New York began to feel less overwhelming and more like home. The places, routines, and people I experienced daily began to feel like my own. It is so interesting to live in a city with millions of people and still feel surrounded by familiarity.
As I’ve grown in this familiarity, I’ve made a list of places I’ve been or things I’ve done that have been a large part of my college experience. Here are some of my favorites:
Seeing Broadway shows. Since freshman year, I have seen five and I hope this number goes up during my senior year.
Walks and runs around the city. Exploring the West Side Highway and Central Park have been my favorite.
Shopping in SoHo.
Going to museums. I feel so lucky to go to a school where a class project is based on attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Christmas in Bryant Park. Although a large tourist trap, ice skating here was out of a movie.
This hasn’t happened yet, but I am going to my first ever NYC Comic Con in October that I am very excited for!
Bryant Park, December 2025
But it truly is the people that make the place. The deli worker greets my friends and I every night we get a pint of ice cream. The barista who knows my order without saying anything. The nail technician catches up with me every month while doing my nails perfectly. They are small interactions I used to think nothing about, but over time, they made a city so large feel personal.
And so ironically, going to school in one of the fastest moving cities in the world has taught me to do the exact opposite: to slow down. I’ve learned to appreciate the walk to practice rather than worry about it. I’ve learned to shake off a bad game rather than dwell in it. I’ve learned to spend the afternoon going on a walk to my favorite coffee shop, alone, and not feel any guilt about being unproductive.
When I committed to play Division 1 lacrosse in New York City, I figured the lessons I would learn would be from my coaches, the classroom, and the sport. I thought going to school in the city would be fun, but I never realized the greatest lessons I would learn would be from the one thing I was most intimidated by.
