For most kids in my school, spring break means a warm, sunny week at the beach, but my sophomore year, it meant just the opposite for me and my family. My family and I packed up the car for the fourteen hour drive from Atlanta to New York City. For my and me, the trip was our first to the city. After a long day in the car, we finally reached the Hilton, our home for the next week. For five wonderful days, my family and I explored the famous city that never sleeps.
On our first days in the city, we visited all the typical tourist sites: the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square and more. On our third day, we visited New York University. It started off as one of many college tour; I had no idea just how much I would like the school. As we toured the school, I began to like the school more and more. By the end of the two hours, I had a new goal: Get into NYU. To this day, I still have my sights set on NYU and a life in the city. But I didn’t know just how much I would want to attend NYU until that night.
That night was the whole reason for the trip: we were seeing American Idiot on Broadway. My whole life, I have been acting, from homemade movies with my friends to productions in school and community theatre, and I had always wanted to see a show on Broadway. When my dad and I found out that our favorite band, Green Day, was getting a musical, we knew we had to see it. We planned our trip so that we would see the show during its last month, when Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day, actually joined cast, and we were even seeing his opening night. The night I had waited for finally came, and we headed down to the Saint James Theatre. As we took our seats, I was buzzing with excitement, and the show started. As I watched the show I realized what I want to do with my life. I want to be on Broadway. I want to sing. I wanted to dance. I wanted to act. That night I decided that I will do whatever it takes to act professionally, and I want to attend Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
Our last day in the city ended up being the most emotional. We visited Ground Zero, the site of the September 11th terrorist attacks. This trip was especially important to my younger sister, who is fascinated with that infamous day, her fifth birthday. My sister has watched every film, documentary and special she found about that day. When we were there, the memorial was still under construction, and the new building barely rose above the construction fence. We walked around the site; we went into the mall next door that we had seen many times on tv. Finally we walked a block and went into the temporary memorial, where we saw videos, pictures and actual debris from that day. I don’t even know how to put the emotions from that day into words, and I won’t try.
Before we left for New York, I could have told you that the trip would be amazing, but now I can tell you that I think it made a difference in my life. We visited places that have a spot in history, and places where I hope to have a future.
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