I was never one to pay attention to small things around me. That’s not to say that I’m always looking down at my phone, or that I am purposefully ignorant of my surroundings. But I had been used to going through the motions. I recently moved to Stern College, which meant I would be living in the city. How fun! I was living right by Lexington Avenue, which was the prime location in the heart of NYC! Except that, again, I did not appreciate this NYC life to the extent that I could have in the first month that I came. I’d wake up, take the elevator down to the lobby, walk down the block without paying much attention to my surroundings, and get seated in my class. It hardly ever dawned on me that right outside my window was this great big world that I had yet to explore. Until Parisian Literature class rolled around. We began to talk about Baudelaire, a 19th Century French poet who introduced exploration of people and sceneries just for the sake of exploring them. We spoke about the idea of observation. Simply walking to walk. Simply noticing things for the sake of noticing them. At first I thought, well that would be really random and weird if I just walked around observing people in crowds, different sceneries, etc. Would that not be a waste of time? I’d be walking with no particular destination in mind? What good would that do for me? Why does the flaneur do what it is he does anyway?

With these thoughts in my mind, I took a walk the next day to go shopping with a friend. At first, I found myself simply noticing the window that I was walking by. That’s pretty, I thought to myself. And then I walked past a stranger, and another, and another. I began to notice the different walks of life that I was encountering. The woman passing by that I would usually brush past was now a woman with a an interesting accent I had never heard before. It sounded like a mix between British and French, I had thought to myself. Huh, I had not noticed that billboard of The Lion King coming back to Broadway. Looking up at the sign opened my eyes to this feeling of nostalgia. I remembered the time that my mom had taken me to the show on my 8th birthday, and ever since then I dreamed of being on the stage. I lower my eyes, and look to my left and see the intricate design on the jacket of the tall man standing next to me. And just like that the city began to feel lively! The vibrancy of the colors around me became obvious and enticing. The man’s fuchsia and turquoise jacket had me staring. The man playing Mufasa had such a funny costume on I could not help but laugh. I began to see the strangers on the streets with a curiosity about where they had come from or where they were going. With this excitement, New York City began to feel like my New York City. I was a part of this place, and I was going to maximize my learning of all there is to know by observing my surroundings.