Visions of Gotham: Topics in NYC from 1945 to Present

            My name is Alcina Kung, and I am eighteen years old. I was born in New York, and I have lived in Fresh Meadows, Queens for my whole life. However, my citizenship would not have been possible had it not been for my parents, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan when they were both twenty-five years old. Now fifty-one years old, my parents have made it a long way from their original roots. They endured the hardship of forging their own paths and the paths of their future children when they arrived in this new and foreign land. Fully immersed in a culture different from their own and constantly haunted by the language barrier, my parents fended for themselves in a world full of strangers. Despite these challenges, they were determined to make it in America, which in their eyes was the land of endless opportunities. This was the place to be. This was where life would be best for them and for their future children. So they worked long and hard throughout the days and nights with the image of their future family as their motivation. They did not want their future children to work as hard as they did and wanted to teach them that the sky was the limit and that anything was possible.

            About a year later, at the age of twenty-six, my mother gave birth to my brother Jonathan in the December of 1984. About six years later, I was conceived in the August of 1990. I am extremely grateful and proud that I am the daughter of my parents. They did so much to ensure that my brother and I would lead simpler lives, and they overcame a great amount of obstacles to secure such a wonderful life for us. I have been blessed to live in such a comfortable home in such a peaceful and quiet neighborhood like Fresh Meadows. My parents went through great pains in buying a house: making sure that the neighborhood would be safe for their children, making sure that there was a certain level of convenience, and making sure that the surrounding schools were very well reputable. The schools I went to were all within walking distance. My elementary school, PS173Q, was five minutes away, my middle school, George J. Ryan Middle School MS216, was ten minutes away, and my high school, Francis Lewis High School, was fifteen minutes away.

            Unfortunately, the college I attend, Brooklyn College, is two hours away by bus and train. However, I believe I made the right decision to matriculate into the Macaulay Honors College of Brooklyn College. It would be the least financial burden to my parents, especially in this economic downturn, I would still be able to stay home and help them with minor errands, and Brooklyn College is well known in the City University of New York system for its pre-medicine programs. The Macaulay Honors College provides students with great benefits, and it is the reason why I am able to take part of a medical internship in India this summer. I am so excited! I have traveled to China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan with my youth orchestra in previous years, and I thoroughly enjoyed the trips. I got to play great music with great people, eat delicious food, and visit my relatives. I have no doubt that interning in India will be a novel experience, because I will be living a tourist-free experience for six weeks in a culture that I am not familiar with.

            Ever since I started my freshman year at Brooklyn College, I began to feel like a true New Yorker. I take the subway every day, and I feel more knowledgeable about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority system. In my first semester, I took a class with Professor Natov that required us getting around the city ourselves, and that opened my eyes to the world around me. Even though I was born in New York City, I lived a sheltered life that mainly centered in Fresh Meadows. I was not allowed to explore the city, because my parents were always concerned about my safety. In turn, I was always amazed by New Yorkers’ abilities to navigate through the subway system. It was not until high school that I was allowed to go out to the city, and it was not until college that I became a true New Yorker. But now, I am pleased that I can also adopt an air of nonchalance like everyone else when riding the subway.