Maya Jourieh Activity 1

Saturday February 6th, I had visited the Staten Island Mall, located in New Springville in Staten Island, New York. The Staten Island Mall is a very familiar location to me, due to the fact I am a resident of the Island. It occurred to me, however, that as familiar as I may be to the mall, observing it lead me to view it with different eyes.
I am convinced that the reason for such observations was that I was was there on a early Saturday, when all schools have given their students a day off. The start of a young one’s weekend seems to be spent at that mall. The mall was heavily populated with a younger crowd, teens falling between the ages of 12-16; as it grew later in time, an older crowd began to arrive.
The mall was rather crowded, not with shoppers, but mostly with what I, myself, would personally define as a loiterer. They seemed to have just been there to waste time. Spending their time at the mall gave them something to do, other than being at home. The mall was an obvious occupancy. Although, there were those who had legitimate reasons for being there, shopping, exchanging, making returns, others were just sitting around giving themselves something to do. I realized those who were there to shop were mainly of a older crowd, and those doing otherwise were young teenagers.
Life on Staten Island is not what I would categorize to be urban life. Although, my view on this may not differ from many views, Staten Island, to me, seems more suburban. To me, urban life would be categorized as life in any of the other five boroughs. However, due to the idea that Staten Island is urban, I’ve based my observations on that. The observations I made at the mall can tell me a few things about urban life. Those living in urban communities always seem to want to be busy. People loving urban lifestyles live in a rush. It’s something that one becomes accustomed to.