I was born in New York City and grew up in an apartment building ①there. My family, with Irish roots, lived on the top floor. People of German, Italian, and Puerto Rican backgrounds lived on different floors. When I climbed the stairs to our apartment, I often ran into people on the other floors. They said "Hi!" to me and sometimes offered me tea and sweets. I liked my neighbors and had nice chats with them. I gradually got interested in foreign cultures. Each apartment had an emergency exit. When I felt sad, I went through it and sat on the emergency stairs for a while. For me, the exit was like the hatch of a submarine. Outside, I often felt like I was in another world, a world of imagination.