Can You Get Lost Tracing Your Steps?
I chose to follow the Guide to Getting Lost for my walk today, and it was a very interesting experience. I started the walk in front of my dorm. And then I was told to go left. This is where things started to get difficult, and was by far the most awkward point of the walk. My walk led me to directly in front of Oscar Meyers just as the a school game was ending. Not only did I have to avoid running into the numerous parents and children running around, for the next several blocks, I had to avoid walking directly behind and bumping into the parents pushing strollers or the very, very, very slow walking toddlers. It was a process that involved a lot of stopping to wait for distance to come between me and whatever obstacle was blocking my path. I am exceptionally glad I chose not to follow a stranger, I do not think I would be able to emotionally handle it. I think this is a wonderful time to comment on the audio for the Guide to Getting Lost. I am not 100% sure that the whole recording was taken in one walk. The sounds jumped around way to much and the streets must have been tiny or she had to be a fast walker because she turned so quickly, way to fast for me to follow. Me not being able to follow her instructions will become a bigger problem at a different point in the walk. But the main issue I had with the audio is the fact that it made me constantly anxious, I mean more anxious than usual. The sounds and talking of streets that were constantly playing in my ears made me think that someone who I could not see was always next to me or behind me, it made me on edge for the whole walk.
But ignoring that, the rest of the walk was mostly comforting. After crossing a retail street, I was mostly surrounded by residential streets. Everything was calm, barely any movement. Everything was cooled by the canopy provided by the trees lining the streets. Occasionally I would spot a dog walker, but that was it in terms of activity. One odd thing I noticed was the several houses that already had Halloween decorations up. I think it is a little early for that but whatever floats their boat.
Eventually I made it onto a street that reminded me a bit of Goose Island, although maybe it was only like that on the small portion of the street I walked. As soon as possible I turned back into the residential area. At this point I had no idea where I was going, so I might of been liberal in my interpretations of the directions to stay in the shaded areas, going into many more alleys.
I also found garbage that felt like a metaphor.
The instructions asking how we got back home made it sound like it would be an arduous process, but despite not really following the directions all of the time, I managed to make it back within eyesight of my dorm at the end of the walk. When I was finally back in my dorm and ready to write this, I read the directions and learned you needed to take pictures, which I had not been doing. So I headed back on out, oddly discovering exactly all of the things I noted on my first walk, despite not using the same instructions. I just wandered and found all the same streets. So that was an interesting experience.
I think to lose yourself in the city is to become so in tune with the surrounding city scape that one begins to feel more of their surroundings than they feel themselves. One begins to lose sight of their own emotions and worries and begins to notice smaller things about the world around them. I am not completely sure that I have completely lost myself in the city before, but I think I have. It was for a short period during one of the first walks we had during immersion week. I was feeling a bit tired, my sleep schedule was not well adjusted at that point, it still is not. I was also a bit grumpy, not really knowing anyone yet. So, as I walked alone, surrounded by the pack of students, my mind just let everything go. Instead of focusing on my worries it focused on the people talking across the road, the abandoned building or the cracked sidewalk, everything but me. It was a wonderful experience. Something similar happens almost every time I go walking, but never since then have I felt more connected to the city.
(190)
