My Solitary Walk
It was about 7:15 PM on September 11th when I left my dorm to go on my solitary walk. I had no destination in mind, but I got on the L anyways to see where the redline would take me. While on the train, there wasn’t too much activity going on and there wasn’t any weird people, which was quite unusual. I did, however, sit next to a woman who was watching these puppet videos on Youtube. After riding the L for a while and getting bored of glancing at the puppet videos, I decided to get off the redline at Harrison. This was around 7:50 pm. I got off the L and asked myself, “now what?” I noticed that I wasn’t too far from Millennium Park, so I decided to walk there and boy was it a good idea.
On my walk to Millennium Park, I came across an old style hotel on Michigan Ave. It was 8:00 PM at the time. Architecturally, it was different than all the other buildings on the street. The exterior was incredible and even though it was an old hotel, it was well kept. It was called the Congress Hotel. To kill time until I got to Millennium Park, I researched the hotel and discovered that many famous people stayed here, including several U.S Presidents. It also played a role in some of Chicago’s most famous and important political conventions. I also read that the hotel is haunted, so I won’t be staying there anytime soon.
As I walked on Michigan Ave, I noticed that it was still pretty lively out. Cars were driving around still lacking their common courtesy and honking at eachother, people still walked the streets, and the smell of sewage was still present. I saw two policemen walking while enjoying a cigar in their mouth. They looked like they were having a good time as they exchanged smiles toward eachother. The cicadas were also extra loud that night. My senses were more open in the night time and everything was heightened in a way. Of course, I was also paranoid walking alone, but I knew I was getting closer. 15 minutes pass and I finally made it to Millennium Park. It was 8:22 PM.
The stage at Millenium Park was beautifully lit. In the picture shown above, the stage had pink, blue, and red hues. The colors transitioned into different ones about every 30 seconds. It was so quite and desolate. At that moment, I thought to myself how lucky I was to be in such a wonderful city. It was very peaceful and it really made me reflect about life. I ended up staying there for about 20 minutes. I left to then go to the Bean at 8:40 PM.
Luckily, it was not that cold out, so it made my walk all the more enjoyable. Then again, I was bundled up in pants, a sweatshirt, and a beanie with my hood on. As I was walking, thinking about how nice it was out, I heard faint chanting. I couldn’t make up any of the words. The chanting then got louder and louder. I realized that it was coming from the Bean. When I arrived, I heard the words from a large group of people saying, “me hoy minoy” and then singing of the theme song of SpongeBob Squarepants. Turns out, there was a SpongeBob march going on. I then joined them, of course. We ended up walking all throughout the park yelling SpongeBob quotes and songs. Why? I have no idea. It was an interesting experience though and I probably would of regreted it if I didn’t join them. This march or convention or whatever you want to call it ended at 9:20 PM.
I had enough excitement for the night, so I decided to head back to the redline. As I retraced my steps back, I stumbled upon my first object to take with me. It appeared to be a piece of concrete with chalk letters on it that spelled out “BAKA”. I had no idea what it meant, but I took it anyways. This encounter was at 9:33 PM. About 5 minutes later, I found my second object; The Columbian Chronicle. It was from a free newspaper box.
After a very long and eventful night, I made it back to my dorm at 10:15 PM. I am glad that I had no agenda while walking because it lead me to experience interesting things.
INTENTION VS ATTENTION
While walking, Intention is the course of action one plans to follow and attention is the close and careful observation of your surroundings and objects. I think of intentions as a restraint. It is holding you back from opportunities that could have been made. What made my walk so interesting was that I had no intentions. If I were to just get from point A to point B on my night walk, I probably would not have discovered the SpongeBob march or better yet, the view of the lit-up stage at Millennium Park. Chicago is the type of city where most people only have intentions of getting to their destination. This blinds them in a way and restricts them from being fully enlightened. When your attention is toward the city and what it has to offer, you might be surprised of what you discover. Overall, my solitary walk was extremely successful. I opened myself up to it and was attentive and discovered opportunities that I probably would of missed out on if I had stayed in my dorm.
