I grew up in Ukraine until I was 9, and spent the rest of my youth in NYC. I spent a large portion of my adolescence in NYC exploring Brooklyn on my own because

I grew up in Ukraine until I was 9, and spent the rest of my youth in NYC. I spent a large portion of my adolescence in NYC exploring Brooklyn on my own because a majority of my peers weren't allowed to leave their block, much less neighborhood. I've found beautiful orchards that I spent my summers in lazily hanging out in and all kinds of amazing places in my neighborhood by exploring, things my peers weren't able to experience because their parents were deathly afraid of letting their children hangout outside. I walked to school by myself by grade 2 in Ukraine, while when I arrived in NYC, my grandparents who came to the US a few years before us, wouldn't let me walk to school on my own until grade 7, to my great adolescent irritation. I've only gotten in trouble a few times because I trespassed on some hapless elderly man's backyard, but never have I encountered a dangerous situation where some stranger meant me harm of their own volition. There's most definitely greatly overstated stranger danger in NYC and America at large, even when you discount my anecdotal evidence and look at actual numbers.