Week 3
It was really quiet, there were no people around. My neighborhood is more quiet than what I am used to. I used to live in the Albany Park area which tended to have a lot of traffic no matter the time. So in this new neighborhood, there is not much activity such as people walking by or cars driving by. Whenever I go on walks, I tend to have two emotions, being calm or being frustrated. Whenever I am calm is because I am just vibing to my music, trying to get in a good headspace before going to work. But when I am frustrated is when I see these signs that are in support of someone.
These red and blue signs frustrate me because it can be assumed that the people who put the sign up are proud to support this person, when this person has done and said many horrible things. There is this video of this man who dresses up as Miss Liberty and takes the signs. I tend to think about that a lot when I walk by these signs. I would not take the sign, just kinda think about what would happen if I did. I also think about leaving a note about why they should rethink their choice.
These experiences directly engage with my political perspectives because the sign goes against what I believe to be right. I only recently (less than five years) have gotten into politics and really understand my role and how I can impact that. I know there are a few things that I am unsure where I stand. But with everything that has happened in the last few years, I have been able to form my own beliefs and question what politicians have said. So when I see this sign, I remember the horrible things he has said or done. I want to engage in a conversation as to why or what leads them to support. I think this allows me to be challenged in the sense that not everyone has the same views as me and they have their reasons.
I do not have many personal memories of the area I walked around because I recently moved here. I also tend to not go out much so I have not gotten myself acquainted to the area as I was to my previous neighborhood. I have driven the similar route before. In one of the corners of the streets, it is a bit more bumpy there are more potholes in the road. I do not drive yet because when I was taking the writing portion of drivers ed I freaked out. So I only got up to my permit, which happened like three years ago. So I recently have been able to push past my fear of driving and been driving around my neighborhood. In this particular corner, I was going to stop and make a turn but I forgot about the potholes, so I drove over them. My mom got mad because she doesn’t like it when the car drives over the potholes, which lead to an argument. Good times. (522)
It is hard to find the meaning of “losing oneself in the city”. I like to think of it as just going on an unexpected adventure in a city. There is so much to do in a city, simple seeing or actual activities. You can discover beautiful places or things about cultures that you didn’t know before. In many cities, there are areas that a certain community resides in. Which allows them to express their culture either by paintings or having restaurants or statues. I don’t think I have fully lost myself in a city, at most I have half lost myself because I was with friends. We were downtown and I was trying to get us to the Shedd Aquarium but we ended up taking the wrong bus so we had to walk for some duration of time until we were able to locate ourselves. During that time we were “lost”, we walked through a little park, from what I can remember there were a couple of boys riding their bikes, a couple walking their cute white dog, and a homeless man laying on a bench. Interestly, we walked through the part because we thought it would be a fast shortcut but we ended up walking through it more than three times. (213)
