Multimedia Essay
On october 4 my friends and I wanted to go walking a round and have a picnic to spend some time together, the day was sunny and we figured why not go around downtown since the weather. We went to walk around where the soldier field is located. Passing the Soldier field reminds me of when I went to see the womens USA soccer team. They had a game as a celebration of them winning the World Cup.
I never knew that it was located by Roosevelt street. We walked round the lake and we took a photoshoot with the view of the Chicago skyline.There were a lot of people around surprisingly, a lot of people being productive most people were working out and riding bikes.
We then found a small park and had a small picnic. The streets were loud because of traffic and because of that we put our speaker as loud it goes to jam to our music.We were listening to some music and two girls came up to us saying that they liked the music we were listening to and we then added each other on social media. It turned out that my friend and one of the girls who came up to us knew each other from when they were young. It made me realize how really small the world is.
It was around 3:30 when we came across the shedd aquarium. Passing by the Shedd aquarium brings a memory from 3rd grade, it was my birthday and I remember my mom was a chaperone and we entered the gift shop and she bought a pack of small stuffed animals. I remember crying of how happy I was, even for lunch I remember they sang happy birthday to me and I was very embarrassed.
After passing the Shedd Aquarium we walked all through Roosevelt street which also brought up another memory. It reminded me of this year’s Mexican Independence day, the street was full of cars with Mexican flags. The traffic was so bad that the streets were then closed. It was such a chaos that night and that is why the memory came up because I had so much fun.
We then passed by Roosevelt Plaza where there are many stores and we went shopping. That is when I realized that I have a bad habit of shopping everytime I go out. I have to stop doing that because I will go broke one day. This plaza also has a movie theater. In high school my friends and I would go there almost every weekend and that place reminds me of the smell of popcorn.
When we finished shopping we continued walking through Roosevelt till we reached Halsted St and turned left. We came across some of the UIC campus. Holsted street was full of restaurants and I was wondering why when I then realized that all around me were all student apartments which explained why there were so many coffee shops.
We kept walking until we made a right turn into 18th St. It was around 5:00 when we went into a corner store to buy some drinks because we were pretty exhausted. When we came out of the store there was a painting of Donald Trump on the side of the wall. The painting explains itself. It made me think of how people actually use art to express their feelings and opinions out to the public.
We kept going straight until we got to Blue Island St. That’s when we turned left and came across the high school my friends and I assisted. We sat in the soccer field talking about all of our memories. One memory that we all shared was that we were all part of the Drama Club and we were all in theater. We started talking about all the plays and musicals we produced and actually performed. My friends were the actors performing on stage, I was backstage being the student director and making sure the productions were running smoothly. The feelings that this brought me back to, before each performance I remember always being anxious that something would go wrong or I was scared that I was gonna give the wrong cue to the people working on the production. I was always very nervous before the performances.We were so into the conversation that we didn’t notice that the sun started to go down and I took a picture of the sky because the sunset was surreal.
It was around 6:40 when we decided to walk to 26th street which is by where we all live. Getting to 26th street and Albany is Little Village where it smells like Elotes and Raspados (Mexican Snacks). I noticed that in the arch of Little Village, they decorated it in honor of the day of the death, which is a holiday and tradition for Mexicans . We then all got elotes and raspados and this reminded me of my childhood. On summer days my family and my cousins would go outside and play hide and seek or tag and we would have the time of our lives and after we would get tired we would always run to buy some raspados to get refreshed and be even more hyper.On 26th street I feel right at home. Having my culture be part of my community makes me very proud and happy.
I then went home and started to think that this walk has made me realize how much history is around us. I never really put that much attention to my surroundings when I’m walking to places. This walk has brought me back to some very happy moments of my life. It made me remember some happy moments with my family and my friends. It made me want to go on more walks and have my eyes open and put attention to my surroundings even more.It made me realize that I really do have to lose myself in order to find myself. We were just wandering around the city and because of this wandering around I got some memories back that I didn’t remember having.
