Girl Online

31 December

It’s the People, not the Place

Once, when my family ended up on a day trip to a place called Cow Roast and we realized that, despite its epic name, there wasn’t really anything much there apart from a row of houses, a pub (that was shut), and a petrol station, my dad gave us a really cool piece of advice. He said that it doesn’t matter what a place is like, what matters is the people you see that place with. If they are up for adventure then you can make anywhere fun. We made Cow Roast fun that day—playing hide-and-seek in some nearby woods and meeting an old lady who invited us into her cottage for tea and scones.

Even though New York is one of the least boring places in the world, seeing it with Brooklyn Boy has made it even more exciting. And the weirdest thing is that in the week I’ve been here, I haven’t been to a single tourist attraction. Instead, Brooklyn Boy has been taking me to all of his secret favorite spots. Yesterday, we drove out to a beach in New Jersey and although it was deserted because of the winter weather it was magical. We wrote our names in the sand and drank hot chocolate from flasks and I took some great pictures of a boardwalk (which is an American promenade). And I survived the drive—there and back—without having a panic attack!

Another night, we visited an art gallery called Framed because Brooklyn Boy had heard there was a really cool photography exhibition on there. The theme of the exhibition was hope and all of the photographers had interpreted it in totally different ways. My favorite was a picture of a little girl with her face pressed up against a toy-shop window. But the best thing about the exhibition was going with Brooklyn Boy: because he’s friends with the gallery owner, we got to go in at night when it was shut to everyone else. (This was doubly good for me because it meant that no one else saw when I tripped over some rope on the ground. It turned out that the rope was a piece of modern art called The Snake. Personally, I think it should be renamed The Health & Safety Hazard.)

So my dad was definitely right—it’s the people you see a place with that really matters. Brooklyn Boy has shown me a really private and personal side of New York I never would have found on my own.

How about you guys?

How have the people you’ve been with made a place really fun and exciting?

Wishing you all a super-fun New Year’s Eve—with super-fun people!

Girl Online, going offline xxx