Ben McKeown

As I write this, I’m flying about 34,000 feet somewhere above the east coast of the US. I’m on my way to New York City for the annual Photo Plus Expo. This will be my first visit to the Big Apple, and as a result, I’m quite excited.

Earlier this summer, I visited the city of Chicago with my dad and my two sisters. It is sincerely not an understatement to say that I absolutely fell in love with the city. Among the throngs of pedestrians, I felt more at home than I have in a while, all while still feeling a sense of excitement that I’d never experienced before. I loved the way that the city grew vertically rather than laterally, many buildings containing more shops, apartments, and businesses than is contained in ten square miles of my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Everything about the city indicated a deep concern for progress - a simple glance at the evolving architecture showed it. Even the old things look refreshing (I stayed in the Palmer House Hilton hotel, built in the 30’s), which is quite a change from the sight of the rusty, quickly deteriorating old buildings in Boone. In short, the city stole my heart.

And now I cannot wait to see the city.

I almost feel familiar with New York already, what with the thousands of images I’ve seen in many of my favorite movies. Most recently, the film Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney offered me a view of the town. As it stands now, simply after my visit to Chicago, I am seriously contemplating one day moving North to a big city. I’m hopeful that my five nights in New York will be as illuminating as those I spent in Chicago.

Keep in touch, as I will. More thoughts soon.