That Little Lady

One of the surprises when I first visited New York city in my youth was that the Statue of Liberty didn't tower over everything, like the Jesus statue in Sao Paolo. But when we took a field trip out to the island one time, she was at least as big as I imagined. However, from 95% of Manhattan, you can't even see her.

Living in Philadelphia for years, our version of this was the Liberty Bell. Visitors always expected it to be enormous, or perched high in the air in some old colonial era tower. (It's no bigger than a small round person, and it's right at street level, easy to see if you want to. I got to see it just walking around town about once a week, which was nice.)

When I moved to my temporary housing in Manhattan around this time past year, I remember thinking how odd it was that I was on the 19th floor with a view over the roofs of most of the buildings around my apartment, and yet I couldn't see that statue. I had kindof secretly looked forward to having this grand symbol of hope to tell me I'd made a good decision in coming here. Instead, I mostly got to see steam coming out of parking garages and scaffolding covering office buildings.

When I found my first floor apartment here in Park Slope a couple months later, after speaking with the super and deciding to take it, and as I was walking out the front door and turning downhill towards the subway, there she was. Small in the distance, but visible straight down my street and out in the bay. Not every decision I've made has been the right one, but for the first time in New York, I felt welcome.

-SdJ