The words anger, anxiety, greed, sorrow, and disappointment run through your mind when you think about the financial crisis we’re going through. After that, fingers begin pointing at one place. This place is simply Wall Street. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District, the notoriously known Wall Street is one of the most prominent and monumental landmarks in the history of the Big Apple. From the New York Stock Exchange to the giant-like billion dollar corporation buildings, Wall Street is like no other place you’ve ever witnessed in your life. When you think Wall Street, some of the things that spring to mind include money, stocks, trading, and business. However, that is not all Wall Street is. Wall Street is New York City’s lifestyle. Wall Street is New York City’s personality. Wall Street is New York City’s individual. Wall Street is New York City itself.
This was my first time walking through Wall Street in my life so it was a huge breath of fresh air for me, being a finance major student at Baruch College. The cold New York wind pierced through my face like a butcher knife cutting through ham as I was about to embark on the biggest mini-journey of my college life. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s the feeling a boy gets when he is about to participate in the first fight of his life in elementary school. There are so many people scurrying through and things like stock trading and billion dollar corporation meetings going on around you that you could lose yourself and not know whether to cautiously walk through this maze or quickly run through it. You don’t even feel like you’re taking steps, it just feels like you’re gliding along on the Wall Street express.
As I walk down Wall Street, the cream-colored Federal Hall building, the glassy Trump Building, and the ever so important New York Stock Exchange all stare down at me as if I was a small grain of sand or a simple speck of dust to them. These infrastructures are all accompanied by the 7,000 pound bronze Arturo Di Modica Bowling Green bull sculpture. Symbolizing the phase in the business cycle we call the bull market, the $360,000 Wall Street Bull is in us all. We as Americans possess the Bull inside of us. It also stands for the strength and power of the American people, and the New Yorkers that have inhabited and created this great insomniac city that never sleeps.
Wall Street is a very fast-paced financial corner in Manhattan. Fast-paced is also a word that describes New York. From the packed rush hour subway trains to the long lines of people waiting for their morning coffee at the local deli, we don’t stop. No city on earth is as fast-paced as this city. We’re always on the move because a second wasted is money that could have been put in our wallets. The New York hustle is one that can always be differentiated from any other kind of hustle. We know what we’re doing when we’re doing it and we can’t slow down because we don’t know how to. We’re always looking for that easy way to get somewhere because we enjoy it. We need that shortcut that involves us going through a narrow alleyway to get where we need to be.
The busyness of Wall Street is unmatched. It’s so unmatched that the only thing that comes close to its busyness is the people of New York themselves. We always have something to do because there is a world of opportunities looking down at you in New York. Whether its work, your local gym, or your favorite clothing store near your block, we don’t stop doing things. Even when we’re not busy, we find a way to look like we’re busy. When your favorite singer’s downloaded ringtone sounds and you see it’s your best friend, who you speak with on the phone for hours calling, you don’t pick it up because you’re busy being not busy.
Wall Street is the quintessential New Yorker because Wall Street will look at you in the eye, intimidate you, and tell you exactly like it is. If there has been a huge drop in the Dow Jones, it will have it written all over its face. If interest rates have just been cut for the 12,758th time and there has been a last-minute surge in trading, it will tell you that too. We are the same exact way. We don’t sugarcoat anything because we don’t feel the need to. If we mean business, we will tell you. If we’re not happy about something, we will make sure it gets heard. If we’ve just had the best day of our lives, we will spread it around so far that it will reach a high school principal all the way down in Brooklyn. New York and its people are as straight-forward as it gets and that is something that will never change about us as New Yorkers.
In conclusion, a walk through Wall Street is a walk through New York in a nutshell. Everyone should undergo the Wall Street, New York experience because it will open up a whole new world of excitement for you. Fast-paced, busy, and straight-forward are just a few of the words that describe New York and how it stands out compared to the rest of the world. We don’t really think about how great New York really is until we being to deeply think about it and acknowledge it. This is the greatest city in the world and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.
The organization and the flow of this essay is what stands out the most to me. There is a clear plan of where you want to take this topic in the introduction. I feel that this is due to the thesis that sets up the paragraphs which follow. It creates an easy transition between each separate thought.