The Perfect Mistake

At first, I thought my day would be rather ordinary; maybe I would see some cool fireworks, but that would be the extent of the extraordinary. Boy was I wrong.

Kiera, Michelle, Me, and Lisa! Pre-firework selfie.

The beginning of the day served as a work day for me. I finished my first report for lecture, and got about halfway done with my second paper for discussion. It was quite a productive day. The awful weather outside also helped me get my work done; practically no one was planning on doing anything during the day. I was just planning to go out during the nighttime to watch fireworks with my dormmates. My plans changed when Lisa texted me to see if I wanted to go to the Empire State Building.

Lisa, her roommate, Kiera, and I met up at 6 to go to dinner at this local restaurant called La Monde. The food was amazing! After, we met with Michelle and caught the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge, where we were planning on watching the fireworks. We waited a good hour and a half for them to start, and when they did, we could barely see them! There was a big tree that obstructed the view, and the worst part was, all the pretty fireworks were shot fairly low. What really made the experience worth the wait was the people I was standing near. Their commentary on the fireworks cracked everyone up, and they really just made my experience much better.  

That breath-taking view. This picture doesn't
even do it justice.

We went to the Empire State Building and so far, that has been the absolute highlight of my trip so far. First off, we were on the fence about going to the Empire State Building that night, because it was close to 11, and curfew was just an hour away. A man named Gordon helped us out as we waited for Michelle to get her ticket so we could return another day (since tickets didn't have to be used right away). Unfortunately, there was some mix-up and Michelle's ticket got scanned. We were so frazzled at that point! We definitely would not make curfew if we went up to the observation deck. We explained out situation to Gordon, and being the good man he is, he gave us special VIP treatment. We were able to skip every line, and fast track up to the observation deck so we could quickly take in the view and snap some photos. When we got up there, I was in complete awe. Experiencing the breath-taking view firsthand was nothing a picture could capture. I've seen so many photos of the view, but having that firsthand experience myself was something on a whole different level. 

I wished I could have stayed up there forever, but unfortunately, we had a curfew to make. We spent about five minutes up there before we had to rush back down. We all decided to just take a cab back to Columbia, because we definitely did not have time to try and figure out the subway. We made it back with a a little less than twenty minutes to spare. This was absolutely the best Fourth of July I have ever had; being with my friends, making new ones, attempting to see fireworks in Brooklyn, and seeing a spectacular view of New York City will be a hard one to top next year.