Letter to Junot Diaz

Dear Junot Diaz,
In the story Aguantando, Junior pictures New York as the type of place that will transform his dad into a suited man, that loves and cares for him. He later finds out though, that his dad is still a cheater in New York, still is abusive, and generally is not a changed person.
When I first moved to New York from Virginia when I was 5 (which is obviously not nearly as much of a culture shock as moving from the Dominican Republic), I also had warped expectations of what it would be like. I didn't think that there was any natural things in New York, I thought that it was just buildings upon buildings. I was used to a lot of nature, so I thought that I would hate it. In the end though I realized that there was still nature in New York, and also that it wasn't as bad as I thought. So my experience was kind of the opposite of Juniors. He expected that New York would change his family and make his dad more of a dad, but it didn't. I expected New York to take any some of my favorite things, but it actually added new ones.