Sense of Place pt. 2 – Manhattan, NY

Being at home for Thanksgiving provided me a much greater understanding of my sense of place in my home city. Because I’m from Manhattan, It’s hard to think of a certain place as your “home” – neighborhoods bleed and melt into one another, and to me, the whole island feels like home. One place to which I returned, however, made me feel an overwhelming sense of place and gave me a sense of nostalgia which took me back to my childhood. Rockefeller Plaza was a place that I would frequent in the city, either alone or with family, and its surrounding area is one I know like the back of my hand. My emotional and psychological dimensions here fostered a strong connection to this place, where I was able to reminisce most of my childhood and young adult life, walking past the rink and window displays in the Saks Fifth Avenue across the street. While there isn’t as strong of a biophysical component of this place in regards to nature, it is filled with people and beautiful architecture, all of which are immensely different from one another – in design, in purpose, in background, history, age, etc. Everything there displays a kind of art and diversity that is unique to any other place I’ve ever been, and I find my interactions with people here to be incredibly eye-opening. Conversations with New Yorkers are usually anything but average, and in this part of the city, where wall street lawyers pass college students who pass dog walkers who pass street performers, you begin to gain a sense of how wide the world is – how many opportunities and people exist in it, something which, to learn at such a young age, really changed the way I understood the world around me. This place hasn’t really changed since I left home for UVM, bringing a very comfortable sense of familiarity which home often does. Midtown in general, however, changes drastically throughout the seasons, as does New York City. Christmastime and Thanksgiving give me a strong place attachment as it brings back memories of coming to see the Christmas tree and ice skating rink in the winter with my whole family, hands warm from the hot chocolate I would carry, eyes wide in wonder as I watched the twinkling lights above me. It provides a very special history as I think of all of the people who have stood in the same place I have, experiencing the same feelings of home as I do every time I walk down West 49th Street. My sense of place has informed who I am because it has provided me a connection to a place that prides itself in making everyone, no matter their age, nationality, race, etc. feel as though they belong. I am who I am today because I have been exposed to a place that offers so much diversity, but also one which offers so much beauty and vision towards opportunity. Seeing people walk around midtown since I was a child has allowed my imagination to run wild, with who I want to be when I grow up, what I want to be like, look like, talk like, act like, etc. It has made me feel that I always have a place that I can come back to and feel at home in – that in and of itself is a feeling that I am very blessed and fortunate to have. My place meaning here at home is based on the rich culture, history, and aesthetic of this place, but it is only meaningful to me because of my emotional attachment to it, where I have been lucky to experience warm and happy memories both on my own, and with my dear family which I can cherish forever, and which in turn, form my place attachment, meaning, and overall sense of place. I am very excited to go back home soon and after a long year of waiting, see the Rockefeller tree lit up once more.

The tree and rink at Rockefeller Center, unlit.
Displays at Saks Fifth Avenue
A map of midtown Manhattan, notice Rockefeller Center in the middle.