Come with Me, to NYC (Part 2)

It was a full week before I could sleep through the night. I would lie in bed and scary movie after scary movie would come to mind. But I never had to leave the light on. I discovered the first night that it is never really dark in Manhattan. My bedroom stayed bright enough at night that I could have read without even turning on a light.

It’s also never quiet in the Big Apple. Creaking floors, neighbors slamming doors, sirens, and screeching tires were the soundtrack of my night. These noises went along with the Bachata and meringue music from the 24-hour Latin restaurants on my block. “The City that Never Sleep” is a very appropriate nickname for New York City.

During the day, the city throbs with energy. There is so much movement and life happening that it’s visually overwhelming. On my two-minute walk from my apartment door to the train station, I would pass 10 restaurants, a grocery store, two elderly Dominican men selling homemade breakfast treats, two people giving out newspapers, and at least one person collecting cans and bottles from the trashcans on the street.

Come with Me, to NYC (Part 1)

Here is the first entry from a new section we are calling "Come with Me." These will be stories from those who are either away from LS right now, or those who were recently away from LS for a short period of time. We will have an interview or a series of short stories from them so in a sense we can tag along on their journey. These stories will be about going away to college, leaving the country, or leaving for the summer like this first installment from Kennesha Dickson.

This is Part 1 from our girl Keke's tale of her internship this past summer in New York City. Enjoy as you get a taste of what she learned and what her experience was like. More "Come With Me's" are to come from Kennesha and from others who are currently away from LS...so stay tuned.

~Blog Crew (Allison Bucca)


Sometime at the end of March I plopped down on my parents’ bed and said, “So how do you feel about me moving to Miami for the summer to do an internship?” My dad gave me a look that was a mixture of surprise and thoughtfulness. He simply replied, “Sure.”

I let out a laugh of disbelief and walked away only to return a couple of days later to ask, “No really, what do you think?” Could it really be that easy? Had my dad really just given me permission to move several states away for a whole summer?

He had. Except time would later reveal that “easy” wasn’t really the word and Miami wasn't actually the place. I was accepted to an internship program at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. I would be working on a research study that was looking at the effects of parental incarceration on children.

I had less than a month to prepare for The City That Never Sleeps and I was surprised to find that I was not as excited to leave home as I thought I would be. Some of it was fear of living on my own, finances, finding a church, and making friends. Various other worries clouded my thoughts, but the most prominent thought on my mind was what I was leaving behind.

As I thought about all of the life that would happen with Lightswitch’s new found unity, three months away seemed like an eternity. However, I was encouraged by my reluctance to leave. Not too long ago I did not greatly value my family and my church and would have given anything to get away. As I prepared to leave for my internship this was not the case; God had already begun to do a work in my heart.

"...with Lightswitch's new found unity, three months away seemed like an eternity."

Moving to New York, even for that short period of time required a lot of faith and God was kind enough to grant such faith to both me and my family. So we packed up the minivan and headed up North. After a fun night in the city with the family, they headed home and I was left alone in an unfamiliar apartment in an unfamiliar city.

I was still excited despite the nervousness and yes, I’ll admit it, the many tears I shed that first night alone in my apartment. But I had a plan: I was going to attend Sovereign Grace City Church in Brooklyn and make tons of new friends. I was going to work hard at my job and stay incredibly busy during the day. I was going to take Latin dance and photography classes to keep myself busy in the evenings. This was my perfect plan and it didn’t take long for it to become very evident that God had a different summer planned for me than the one I had planned for myself.

Stay Tuned for part two of Kennesha's "Come with Me, To NYC."