I had always wanted to go to New York City. It has just been one of those cities that has existed on my dream trip list for as long as I can remember. Of course when I was young I had dreams of starring in a Broadway musical, but those dreams didn’t hesitate to remove themselves from my young mind once I was told I was tone deaf and was repeatedly reminded that I simply could not sing. The brutal discovery occurred when I was in the fifth grade and assigned to the part of Kaa the Snake in our elementary school production of The Jungle Book. We were all just assigned parts and no one had to sing or anything. I grew up in a very small rural town in Kansas and we only had about fifteen students in the entire class.
Well, I took the part and ran with it. My mom made my costume and I was eager to get out and sing and act. However, immediately after the opening night performance I went out to greet my family and the first words my brother said to me were, “You really can’t sing, can you.” I didn’t understand his question seeing that I just did sing. I sang a whole song onstage and by myself. I didn’t realize he meant that I couldn’t sing in tune, but this was definitely the beginning of the end. My Broadway career was over and I had barely turned eleven.
And while my singing and performance dreams left me my fascination with New York remained strong. It was only last year that I was able to visit the city for the first time though I will have to say it was worth the wait. It turns out that my company was asking for volunteers from my department to represent it in a convention in Manhattan. As if that was exciting enough the trip was scheduled to occur on my twenty-second birthday. Naturally I was the first to volunteer and couldn’t wait to settle into the company provided room at one of the boutique hotels in New York City. While I was there I did everything a tourist was supposed to do, including taking a seat on the roof of one of the buses that toured the city and visiting both the Empire State Building and Coney Island. I guess my favorite event, if I had to choose one, was my seat at the Minskoff Theatre where I saw The Lion King.
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boutique hotels in New York City · The Jungle Book · tone deaf
