16 Dollars For a Drink and Some New York Trauma

Recently I went on a trip to New York City with my boyfriend. I was beyond excited as I had been to New York before with my high school and had fallen in love with the city at first sight.

However, most people know that New York is not a walk on the beach. It can easily be one of the most chaotic vacations you will ever take.

It almost does not feel right to even call a trip to NYC a “vacation” because I do not think that there is ever a moment where you are truly relaxed. This is honestly one of the reasons I love it so much, considering I have never been the type of person who likes to sit still on vacations. I am probably the worst beach partner ever.

However, there are some kinds of chaos that even I try to avoid. 

After a few nights of staying in our hotel, we were finally able to go to the rooftop bar that we passed by every time we got on and off the elevator. We were excited to be able to sit under the city lights and enjoy some overpriced drinks without even having to leave the building that we were sleeping in.
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Once we got a table, or a comfy couch rather, we were able to pull up the menu and see exactly what kind of damage was going to be done to our bank accounts that night. Despite being rather disappointed but not surprised that we were going to have to spend sixteen dollars each on drinks named after outdated internet memes, we ordered them with no hesitation. After ordering the drinks, we were able to truly soak in the night. All of the city lights were beautiful, and we were surrounded by people just as excited to be there as we were. However, there was suddenly a little too much excitement.

As if they appeared out of thin air, I saw a few people run toward our end of the terrace and immediately lie on the ground. Soon after that, several other groups of people followed. It all happened so fast that I can barely remember when I even figured out that they all were running from a suspected shooter, but without thinking, I was suddenly running too. My boyfriend and I hid behind the nearest table and were suddenly closer to strangers than we had been since the start of the pandemic. At that time, we were all experiencing the same feelings, fear, and confusion. We knew we were supposed to be scared but did not know why.

​People were surely exclaiming that there was a shooter, but there was no sign of gunshots, and there were people standing around not too far away from where we were as if nothing was happening. After laying next to complete strangers for a little while, we deemed it safe to get up. There were no signs of danger literally anywhere.

Despite the situation, I knew we had not gotten our drinks yet, and the bar was holding on to my boyfriends debit card, so we returned to the table rather than leaving immediately. Maybe not the best decision, but I lived to tell the tale and got a little tipsy.

Just because none of us were scared anymore does not mean that we were not all still sharing the feeling of confusion. We still did not know what caused all the commotion. Finally, after word spread across the terrace, my boyfriend and I learned that a fight had broken out in the lobby, and people were just trying to escape that. The issue was that after a few people started running, more people started running without knowing why. This created the active shooter theory and the worst game of telephone ever. 

Even though I knew I was safe, I was still uncomfortable. The thought dawned on me that had there been an actual shooter, I would have most definitely not been in a safe spot. The table I hid behind would have only protected me for so long before the shooter would easily walk around it. This really proves that once you are in a moment of danger, you are not going to be in the right headspace to make the best decisions.
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Had we been able to think it through, we definitely would have hidden in a spot that would have allowed us to sneak out the door. However, in panic mode, hiding behind the nearest table seemed like the right move. I had always wondered how I would react if I were ever in a situation like that, and I really thought that I would be able to execute a perfect plan. This experience proved me wrong, and I still think about that a lot. Hopefully, this was the last time that I order a drink that comes with some undisclosed New York trauma on the side.