Thank you, E.B. White

Today on the Subway, I saw a quote (as a part of Columbia University's new Train of Thought program, go Lions!) that made me, for once, appreciate being a visitor to this city:

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. […] Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”
- E.B. White, Here is New York

This past week (oh my god, has it really only been a week?), I have fully embraced my tourist attributes. I walk around with a subway map at all times, pull out my camera at any large sign or New York icon, and am constantly asking "which way is __ st?" upon exiting the subway. I am new to this city and I love it. It gives me a great excuse for not knowing anything about it, and for that reason, I am not afraid to ask- and thus why I'm learning and exploring so much. To this day I don't feel comfortable in San Francisco. It's because I was raised near it, but never really explored it, so by the time I got to college, I got a lot of "You've never been there? But you live here!" This made me incredibly hesitant to ask questions about or explore San Francisco, even though I've been working there for two years now. Its sad, really, but I'm glad I have no such hindrance in New York.

Unfortunately natives of this city don't reciprocate the enthusiasm of visitors. At least so I've heard. I have received plenty of help from strangers, but who knows how many of them were secretly grumbling to their friends about annoying tourists after I left. Personally, if I lived in an internationally acclaimed city, I would consider myself honored every time I helped out a visitor. Don't these natives understand? The reasons visitors come is to get a bite of what the natives have-intimacy and familiarity with the city to the point where street signs are superfluous and restaurant recommendations are locally-known, 'hole-in-the-wall' places.

But now I realize how wrong visitors are to want that familiarity. We have our place in this three-fold population, we bring the passion. The natives create the culture, but don't have the enthusiasm and energy to appreciate it. That's where we come in. Yes, we want to see the skyline. Yes, we want to take a picture of every location we may have seen in a movie. Yes, we want to pose for a picture next to a sign saying 'Wall Street'. But the hope is, in our obnoxious Paparazzi-ing, we'll drag along the occasional native and allow them to take a step back and enjoy the livelihood they helped foster.

Stay classy San Francisco!