When I think of Chicago, I think of it as my second home. Since moving here, I have adapted to the hustle and bustle of the city making it my new “normal”. When I first moved into my dorm, I was excited but nervous about what this city had in store for me. Coming from a small family-friendly suburb in Minnesota, when I would tell people I am going to college in Chicago, their eyes widened like I had just told them I had just told them something unbelievable. It got to the point where I was insecure of telling people where I was going. I got the same responses over and over again. The “that’s a big city” or my favorite, “you’re gonna get shot.” I had heard it all. Moving here, I could have never guessed how much the city has made an impact on my life. Now that I am a resident here, I feel connected to this city in a way that can never be perfectly described. The significance of this course has helped me change my point of view on the city and has taught me more than I will ever know about what it is like to walk in Chicago.
Before coming to Chicago, I had never experienced so much walking. In my hometown, walking isn’t the main mode of transportation. The only time you see people walking is when it is for exercise or with their dogs. For the citizens of Inver Grove Heights, the easiest way to get around the suburb is with a car. It was so uncommon to see people walking that when I was in school, I thought walking to the nearest Walmart five minutes down the street from me was embarrassing. Since moving to Chicago, walking has become my main mode of transportation. It makes me appreciate the city more now that I am walking everywhere I go. When a map says that the nearest Target is twenty minutes away, I am ready for the journey. Throughout every journey I have trekked for Walking Chicago, I have lost myself in the city. From walking in Lincoln Park to the Riverfront downtown, every walk I have taken has taken me out of my comfort zone and has gotten me more familiar with this city. As Rebecca Solnit quotes Walter Benjamin in Paris or Bontaizing the Asphalt: “But to lose oneself in a city — as one loses oneself in a forest — that calls for quite a different schooling.” To get lost in this city is to be fearless. To step out of your comfort zone and not know which way you should turn or what you could run into. The more I have walked, the more I have realized that this city is a jungle patiently waiting for you to get lost in it. Before this course, walking was something that I did without thinking. It was so impulsive that during my weekly assignments, I found myself walking without noticing my surroundings. I quickly had to snap out of my bad habit and continue walking with my eyes peeled for things that I noticed during my walks.
During Immersion week, when we went to the top of the John Hancock Center, I had never seen Chicago from that height. That first week, I knew nothing about Chicago. I had no idea where the DePaul campus was let alone where Lincoln Park was. Looking back, it’s crazy to think that I was so innocent to this city. I had no perception of the streets or the train routes. Seeing the city from above was a thrilling experience because it made me want to explore. While you could see Chicago for miles, you couldn’t really truly experience the city. Looking above, you could see the cars and boats traveling on the lake, but you weren’t below, listening to the sounds of Chicago. The sounds of the cars backed up on the highway or the sounds of the construction that is always a little too loud for your ears.
Overall, it was the perfect beginning to my new life. Throughout Immersion week, I didn’t know what to expect. After going through all the different neighborhoods like Pilsen and Bronzeville, I realized that Chicago is not all tall skyscrapers, but the thing that makes up Chicago the most is its culture and sense of community in each borough. Of course, I was not that naive coming here. I knew that there was more to Chicago than just tall buildings, but I was not expecting how many neighborhoods there were and how different each community was going to be. Every train ride I took seemed like it transported me into a new world. The train is the vein of the city, pumping the blood –the citizens of Chicago — out to different parts of the city keeping it alive. Touring places like Pilsen and Bronzeville really opened my eyes to all the art integrated in the city. Pilsen keeps their history alive by murals littered throughout the neighborhood. Stepping foot in Pilsen, you can tell how important their community is to them. The murals are a representation of their love for their community and tells the history of the community through beautiful representations of art.
Going to these neighborhoods really it helped me incorporate what the next eight weeks were going to have in store for me.
For my first walking journal, I didn’t want to go too far, so I explored Lincoln Park. Exploring Lincoln Park was always a fun journey. For my first walk, I went to Oz Park to really get a feel of this neighborhood I now call home. Lincoln Park was a mystery waiting for me to solve it. Walking through Lincoln Park felt so unfamiliar that I almost felt like the new kid in town. Going through the park made me become more familiar with Lincoln Park and the city in general. Coming from three hundred miles away, It was comforting to see children and their families out and about. In my first week of walking, I learned that Chicagoans do not care for cars. They will cross the sidewalk even if there’s a car a few inches in front of them. This took some getting used to because in Minnesota, everyone is known for being nice. We insist on waiting for the other person to cross the street or drive by. My town was also not exactly walkable, so it took some time getting to learn how to walk in Chicago. After a week, I was the person crossing the street not caring if the car in front of me was annoyed with my presence.
Two weeks later, I walked to the actual Lincoln Park. Walking through the park, I noticed an Alexander Hamilton statue. Kate Sturges Buckingham had this statue put there because she believed Hamilton was “one of the least appreciated great Americans”. Buckingham wanted this statue of Hamilton built because she believed that he secured the nation’s financial future and was grateful to him that he could allow her family to make a fortune. Buckingham worked with John Angel, an artist born in England who sculpted the statue of Alexander Hamilton. Unfortunately, Buckingham died before she had a set place of where the statue was going to be located. In 1953, Samuel A. Marx designed the pedestal Hamilton would put on only to be destroyed in 1993 due to design flaws. Hamilton still stands but not as high as he used to. In 2017, I saw Hamilton in Chicago and loved it, so seeing the statue reminded me of coming here in February in the freezing cold and seeing my favorite musical with my grandma and mom.
For my last walk, I decided to go downtown. Usually, I am downtown to go to the Loop for classes, but this time, I really wanted to become a tourist and walk around Chicago like I haven’t lived here for three months. I had just gotten back from going home from Minnesota for the weekend and couldn’t wait to get back to the city.
In Kathleen Rooney’s, It Is Not Waste All This, Not Placed In Disgust, Street After Street, she states that “the city hides itself, waiting for you to return to it.” When I was at home, I mourned Chicago. I desperately wanted to see it again like it was my long distance friend. I was obsessed with getting back and when I did, it felt like I never left. It felt like the city stopped for me and continued as soon as my feet touched back in Chicago. In reading The Solitary Stroller in the City, Rebecca Solnit writes, “Cities have always offered anonymity, variety, and conjunction, qualities best basked in by walking”. Now that I live in Chicago, I have experienced the anonymity, variety, and conjunction everywhere I walk. The anonymity of not knowing what each street is going to hold or what sight my eyes are going to lock into next. The anonymity of each person you pass, having their own life story that you will never know. There is a certain fascinating mystery to anonymity, not knowing who or what you are going to see in this big city. In addition to anonymity, I also see variety everywhere. I see people of different races and origins all over the city. There is something so inspiring knowing that we all are humans living in this big city, but we all live completely different lives. Maybe the only thing we have in common is the sights we share everyday in the city or the trains we take to get to work or school. In addition to anonymity and variety, conjunction is also a big part of the city. Everyone has a different purpose for their day whether it’s going to a work meeting or meeting a friend for dinner. While everyone is in the city, we all have different objectives during our day. While our paths may cross, we all have our own path we stroll and mark we leave when we go to sleep at night. This city has truly taken over my life and we all have our own version of Chicago. This course has really helped me shape what my version of Chicago is.
Sources cited:
Rooney, Kathleen “It Is Not Waste All This, Not Placed Here In Disgust, Street After Street”, Slag Glass City, 2017
Solnit, Rebecca “The Solitary Stroller and the City” Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin, 2001. 171–195.
Solnit, Rebecca “Paris or Bontaizing the Asphalt” Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin, 2001. 171–195.
https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/alexander-hamilton-monument
