A Bittersweet Escape
“The United States, I feel is well on its way to becoming a Monoculture Disneyland where it seems our cities and towns lose their identity for chain stores and strip malls. I remember driving through Southern California and feeling like everything looked the same. I miss ‘mom and pop stores’ and unique businesses, not just visiting the next Wal-Mart or Olive Garden in the next city or state.” When I read this paragraph from Asian American gypsy, Lani V. Cox, I thought it to be the most powerful interpretation of what my beloved New York is becoming. Unfortunately, it took me traveling to another continent to realize that there’s nothing I can do to stop this.
This past holiday, my mom and I flew to London and Paris for a couple of days to get away. Over the past couple of months, both of our worlds were shaken up when we lost the biggest foundation in our lives, my grandmother. Prior to this major event, we have always spoken of visiting the two countries because of our love for the history that resides within the infrastructure of those nations. While it wasn’t the first time I traveled outside of the States with my mother, it was, however, the first time I was able to bond with her as an adult. London and Paris were kind to us, and the experiences we shared was much more than what we anticipated for.
Growing up in New York City taught me a couple of things: resilience, grit, and throwing punches when the moment calls for it. Something unexpected that occurred while residing in one the most ghetto streets is the transitioning of clean streets put into development by Michael R. Bloomberg. At first, we all believed this was an amazing opportunity for the small shops who can finally get business because people are no longer afraid to cross a street into a bad neighborhood. Then something even stranger happened — we started getting visitors from other provinces buying land and becoming what seemed to be permanent tenants. Now, why is this relevant to my trip to Europe? Well, it’s extremely significant because the same thing is happening there, too.
Residents of London and Paris, quite literally every major city, are witnessing the decline of their hometown what they thought to be rich with life and history. Unfortunately, we are forced to watch buildings being gutted and turned into condominiums and chain stores. This known fact created a dialogue between my mother and me, and of course with the citizens of London and Paris. We went on this trip to get away not just from the emptiness we felt due to what we can both agree is our biggest loss, but also to escape the bull crap happening in our own country. Once arriving in Europe and seeing that the people there are also combating the same issues we were, it allowed us to look internally and see how we can adapt instead of trying to get away.
Traveling can be a great way to escape, but often times we discover more about ourselves and who we are due to those experiences. What can make those moments worthwhile is returning back home and actually doing something about the things we were trying to run away from in the beginning. For me, the combination of trying to create new memories with the absence of my grandma and seeing that other well-established countries are undergoing one big gentrification process was really unsettling. But similar to my mom, my grandma, and the people that grew up in cities like New York, London, and Paris, I developed extremely thick skin which has made me resilient, have an enormous amount of grit, and ready to fight for what I believe in. And that was something that I was reminded of throughout the duration of this trip.
Although there isn’t anything I can do about the changes being made to the history surrounding me, I can cherish them and take those memories with me wherever I go. My grandfather told me that all people, places, and things come and go, and it took the physical absence of my grandma and a coming of age through travel to London and Paris to fully understand that.
