Immersion Week
My immersive one week in Chicago showed me that the city isn’t really what I thought it was. The city of Chicago has this perception of tall skyscrapers surrounding main streets like Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. Tourists walk by and see the high-end stores and restaurants filled with customers. On the other hand, everyone understands the impoverished streets of the south side and distinguishes it with gang and gun violence. Students who come to study at DePaul University are surrounded by the city and are always told, “The city is dangerous, be careful” and “Don’t walk on the streets at night, always carry pepper spray with you”. After a week of immersing myself into the communities such as: Gold Coast, Old Town, Uptown, Pilsen, and so many other places, I learned that the city is so much more than some tall buildings and littered streets.
On our first day of class, we explored Lincoln Park which is one of two DePaul campuses. I felt familiar with the area as I walked around the community previously; My sister used to live in Lincoln Park and I visited all of the time. We walked along Clybourn Avenue to mark convenient places; A Trader Joe’s and Aldi for grocery shopping, Homegoods for any home furnishings and décor, and a few other spots like restaurants and clothing stores. We gathered back together in our classroom to reflect on our sensory experiences. Recalling sound, sight, smell, touch, taste, and other details was helpful in describing how we explore on our walks. For the rest of our week, we continued to reflect on particular moments of our excursions.
Tuesday was the day out of the whole week where I felt the most exhausted. I was woken up by my alarm at seven in the morning and I didn’t get back home until six o’clock in the evening. We began with the 360 Chicago experience in the John Hancock tower. When we reached the highest floor and looked out the window I saw the city from a different perspective. The people and streets were a lot smaller, only tall buildings really stood out while everything else diminished. Jason asked us all to choose a view and draw it, it wasn’t until after I finished creating my sketch that I realized I didn’t actually know my own city very well. It wasn’t until my shoes hit the pavement of the sidewalks that I could see everything better and understand the communities more.
Instead of walking the streets of communities in the city like we did on Tuesday, we were able to take the time on Wednesday to help out the people of an area called Garfield Park. In a sense, we were able to learn about more than just the streets because we worked with the people who live on them. A small garden had been designed by an elderly woman way back when she was younger. With age, it has been hard for her to keep taking care of it. As our service day, we went in with shovels, rakes, and other gardening tools to clean the place up. At the end of the day when everything was done, I felt really good about myself. It felt good to help others and I felt I was doing my part in DePaul’s Vincentian mission. I look back at how lucky I am to be a student at DePaul with privileges that not many others have.
For the last two days of our immersion week, we spent the time taking tours with a guide who gave us historical information on towns of the city that I’ve never been to. It’s crazy to me that I didn’t even know some of the communities we visited existed. Taking these walks with a big group made me feel comfortable to explore. We were all in the same boat of the learning process and got to know our surroundings and each other better. I will look back at our immersive week in Chicago and remember how well I got to know my city in such a short amount of time, what’s the next city I want to immerse myself in for a week?
