After graduating from college, I moved back to the city and felt like a stranger in my hometown. But my hometown is New York City, and after graduating, it didn't feel much like home. Living upstate was a breath of fresh airI decided to enroll at SUNY New Paltz in upstate New York. For someone who spent their whole life having to take an elevator ride down 33 floors to go outside, living upstate felt like real freedom. That is what makes me a New Yorker; that is what makes New York City my hometown.

---

Persons: —, it's Organizations: Service, SUNY, Manhattan, Yorker, New Locations: Manhattan, New York, New York City, SUNY New Paltz, Paltz , New York, Brooklyn, Rediscovering New York, West, York, Yorker