I Stalked a Pigeon!?
I began my walk in the midafternoon starting at my dorm and walking around the Lincoln Park campus. I began by following someone who exited the building before I did. They led me to the Quad where I then stopped to take in the breeze and the nice weather. Before finding someone else to follow I stopped at the arch that leads into the Quad to take a picture. When I first visited DePaul my mom had taken a picture of me under this arch to commemorate my choice to attend DePaul.
Afterwards I found a small group and followed them until we reached the Whole Foods. I didn’t want to go in so I kept walking until I was under the tracks at the Fullerton Station. A train was passing overhead as I entered and it seemed to block out all the other noise of the street and people passing by. I was so mesmerized by this occurrence and after I was surprised that I had never stopped to experience this before. I followed many people around campus but most of them led me to the Student Center with the occasional trip to Wish Field. I thought it was really boring going to the same places so instead I took a different approach.
I decided to follow a pigeon. I saw him walking across the street at the crosswalk and I felt like he was inviting me to follow him. Surprisingly this pigeon led me much farther than any humans had. We started at the Student Center and walked past Wish Field to look at the apartments that lined the street across from it. Then we took a turn and passed by the School of Music and then turned back down Fullerton Avenue. We took another short break at the station while he had some water from a puddle and then continued onward down Fullerton. We walked back past my dorm and then he suddenly crossed the street. We were in the parking lot of the Chicago Public Library for quite some time because I had lost him under one of the cars. We headed to this very small grassy portion behind the library and sadly that’s when we said goodbye. He left me to walk under a wire fence and then flew away. While we had been to spots that I had already seen I felt that it was different since I was more concerned with why the pigeon had led me here on foot rather than where I was going. I was so caught up with the pigeon, making sure he was still there and hadn’t gotten hit by a car, that I completely forgot to take pictures on my walk with him. Sure I knew where I was going because we stopped by some pretty noticeable places but at the same time I only knew where I was because we stopped. If he hadn’t stopped walking I might’ve ended up somewhere completely unknown because I would never have looked up.
I think losing yourself in a city is similar to what I experienced with the pigeon. It’s when you are not really paying attention to where you are going but you keep walking. In other words you’re too occupied with something else to pay attention to your surroundings. I think some of us do this everyday by simply walking to class because it’s a route so ingrained in our minds that we don’t pay attention to the journey but simply the destination. Like I said earlier, this happened on my walk with the pigeon. I was too preoccupied with the pigeon to focus on my surroundings and even though we didn’t walk far from campus, I was still lost in the city nonetheless. Another example is my walk to the Student Center, sure I know where I’m going but I never pay attention to what’s around me while I walk.
