Permanent State of Tourism

Riding a subway yesterday, solidly glued to my NY magazine. Two teenagers walk into the subway car, one of them exclaiming: God! I HATE tourists. This phrase sliced my ears and I had to raise my head to stare at the perpetrator of such animosity. Catching the look in my eyes, uncomfortably he sits right next to me as I say: Excuse me I wanted to ask you why exactly do you hate them so much? His facial expression turns to horror as he now thinks that I am one of the tourists.
He tries to put his thoughts together for a few seconds and finally blurts out: Well, because they do things others (he meant us New Yorkers) wouldn't normally do! Great reasoning, followed by a blank stare...
15 years old, with a pale, pimply face and mouth full of metal zig-zag braces he represents a new generation of a "Rude New Yorker" stereotype. Stereotype I thought was long extinct, sitting right next to me on a subway.
Yeah, we don't normally appreciate the architecture, or Broadway shows, or the magic of Central Park. We don't take pictures or go out for dinners; in fact we hate Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, all the lovely bridges, museums and we never ever take the water taxi. Right?
Putting more profound thought: "We are all tourists here on planet earth" aside, on daily basis I feel exactly like any tourist except for the enviable fact that they are free to roam the city while I am going to work. In NYC every neighborhood is a different country, thus all New Yorkers remain in a permanent state of tourism.
Maybe I was lucky that I was born in Russia and had to jump through hoops only to be able to come and live here. Maybe that gave me an undying appreciation and love for all things New York. Maybe every time I look at this city I see it with fresh eyes, the eyes of a tourist.
Maybe all of us should start calling them guests, after all you love your guests and want to show them the best of the best.
Whether they are sitting in lawn chairs in Times Square, or trying to score tickets to the latest and greatest Broadway show, or walking around in their bright crocs, randomly stopping to take a picture and thus causing fury of someone who is running late to a board meeting; these guests of our city are an inspiration to never take NYC for granted.
We all know that love wanes the moment you start taking it for granted and what happened to "I ♥ New York"? If we truly love New York, we should love and respect it's guests as if they were our own, always, even on our worst day.