Every year in New York City there is the annual tree lighting by Rockefeller Center. Thousands of people came out to see the tree being lit, including my parents and I. This was the first time we were going to witness the tree light up with millions of tiny bulbs that it is decorated with. Our excitement to see this 100 foot tree painted our faces with delight and we could not wait.

The morning we woke up to get ready for the city, it was drizzling slightly outside. It was the beginning of December, so there was not much snow on the ground and the little bit of snow gave the air a chill. The rain did not help make the coldness any better, but it was tolerable. My parents and I began preparing for the ride to New York by gathering all of our belongings together. Since it was chilly and wet, I dressed in heavy clothes to stay warm for the long day ahead of us. Getting ready did not take us long since most was packed the night before, so we began our ride to The Big Apple.

The ride there did not drag on as bad as I expected. We had made it to the Lincoln Tunnel just as the city was beginning to get crowded. Going through the long, dimly lit tunnel felt longer than driving through two states. By the time we made it out of the tunnel we saw what had taken us so long: flooding the streets were hundreds of people heading to the tree lighting, just like my parents and I. Before we arrived to the giant display, we had decided we were going to go to Times Square and get some dinner at Bubba Gump’s: a restaurant based on Forrest Gump.

We arrived at the restaurant just in time before rush hour had started. Our food did take awhile to get to the table since there were so many people at Bubba Gump’s. Once the food arrived we devoured our dishes as quickly as possible so we could begin our walk down several blocks. As we were chowing down on our food, the television was on and we saw that there were protestors trying to take over the tree lighting. At the time my parents and I did not think much about the protestors, each of our minds shifted to the sparkly lights we were going to finally see, and before we knew it, we left the restaurant and started off to the biggest outside event we could ever imagine.
When we arrived at the lighting, we realized we should have listened to the television. There were protestors everywhere, arguing about the recent news with police brutality. Many of these protestors were yelling loudly and getting up in our faces. My parents and I were scared that these peaceful protestors were going to turn violent. I felt as if I was an open target to all these people and anything could happen at any minute. They did manage to block all ways to the tree as they had wished. Police were barricading the protestors off to keep them separated from everyone else, but it was not working. Yelling was happening at every inch around us, but what we were focused on was getting to the tree. I thought we could get through the crowd of people to get to the tree lighting if we just slowly pushed our way through. It was impossible to get through a crowd so tight that you could not breathe. My mom decided the best idea that was in our favor was to turn around and get out of the protestors’ way. We turned around and got out of the crowd and went down a few blocks until we were safe from the potential riots that may have happened. The day had taken a completely different turn then we expected.

The decision was that we were going to leave New York City early because of the protestors. My parents and I did not want to get involved with what might happen later on. Even though we could not see the tree lighting, I did witness something I had never experienced in my life. I was always so sheltered at home and never witnessed anything big happen in the world. New York showed me how anything can happen on the streets and you cannot always be safe. My eyes opened up that December day to a world where you can freely speak your mind whenever you choose to. Seeing those protestors has shaped me to see that I can always speak my mind and should never assume I will be safe all the time.