SUNNYSIDE, NY--There was a big, bustling city waiting just outside Deb Schwartz’s doorstep. But Deb didn’t know this until she left her apartment.
Deb decided to venture outside her small and musty-smelling apartment sometime in mid-October, to travel with her boyfriend’s aunt to a photographic show in SoHo called Here is New York.
The show collects photographs taken by amateurs and professionals, ones that concern the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, the attacks’ aftermath, and New Yorkers coping with their new vulnerability.
“It’s about remembering and healing,” says Deb, who is now considered by most of the show’s volunteers to be a “regular.”
Now that Deb goes out of her apartment and into Manhattan on a daily basis, she is often changing out of her “house clothes” and into “real clothes”. While in “real clothes”, she has gone out to dinner, to bars, and even seen several movies.
“I’m getting quite familiar with the subway here,” Deb added. “And I think the subway is getting familiar with me.” Deb went on to describe this bourgeoning relationship as a “win-win” situation.
Though still without permanent employment or health insurance, Deb’s spirits are up. She says she is finally feeling like a real New Yorker. “I’ve always known how to complain,” Deb said. “It’s something I’ve always been good at. But now I complain like a Real New Yorker. When I ‘go on’ about a stalled subway car or the price of yogurt, people often mistake me for a native.”