A couple weeks ago, on my way to New York, I was sitting inside the bus, looking out through the window.
New York, New York, as much as I love New York, it seems a little daunting to me.
How am I suppose to get to know this city? I wonder.

That day I had a wonderful time in NYC.
I had a chance to think about my American journey. It's been more than 5 years since I immigrated here.  
People often ask me: "So what brings you all the way here (to the U.S.)?"

Before I always said "Well, I felt an urge to leave my parents and live my own life.
And being a stuck-up Taipei kid who thinks everywhere else outside Taipei sucks , I just gotta go abroad."

But now that I thought about it more, I think I've found the real answer.

When I first came, I lived in Silicon Valley.
Six months later I went to Davis for school. Being a city person, I hated that place to the guts, period.
One summer I managed to find an internship in San Francisco. I went through all the hassle of moving and lived there for two months.
It was certainly one of the best time in my life!

But still, I kept moving.
I chose to come to Penn, and not Michigan or Yale almost immediately.
It wasn't a hard decision at all.
I wanted to come to the east coast, and I wanted to be in a big city.

It wasn't easy to move to a new city.
The day I moved to the east coast, I was by myself most of the day.
Tears ran down my cheek several times when I was on the plane. 

It wasn't all about sadness for leaving that I felt, even though I was a little sad.
Perhaps I was simply shocked to realize how crazy I was.
Just how big of an inner crave does one have to have so that he is willing to leave so much behind and go to a place where he is so unfamiliar with.
 
I have done it many times. From Taiwan to California. From California to Pennsylvania.
And I've just made up my mind, that I'm gonna move to New York next year.

I want it. I want to live in New York so badly.
Will that be my final stop? I don't know. But I know that I want much more than that.
I want to buy a new car, I want to have a nice apartment, and I want to own one of the towers.
 
Yes. It is the American dream that carries me through.
I finally realize that this is the real reason behind everything that I've been doing in the past 6 years.

I have an American dream--an insatiable appetite for things that I desire. 
That's why I wanted to come to America so badly--the land of opportunity.
A place where people believe that the sky is the limit, and that if there is a will, there is a way.

I, too, am afraid of new things.
"New York is so big and complicated, how am I supposed to ever figure out all the ins and outs about New York? "
"Yeah, live there. Live in the city and I will feel at home. "

Okay, I will live in NYC, starting next year.
I might no nobody there today, but one day I will become a full-fledged New Yorker. Wahahahaha. 
And when that day comes, I am certain that I will feel 10 times happier than if I were to just stay in San Francisco.

That, I think, is the beauty of life--to have a goal and go get it.

For some people, it might appear that I am that type of greedy person who's never content about what he or she already has.
But in fact, waking up every morning knowing what I want, and that I am working towards my dream give me tremendous amount of satisfaction.
To me, this is the secret of happiness.

Besides, there's always time to look back and feel content.
Even if there isn't, people around me will remind me of things that I've done in the past.
And hopefully I am proud of most of them.