The Naturally Introverted Walkers of Chicago
I decided to follow a stranger for the fourth week of my Walking Chicago Discovery Class. I started my walk from Ozanam Hall at 2:09 in the afternoon on September 24th. I walked down Clifton and turned left on Belden. After a few yards, I spotted a bird bath with nearly a dozen house sparrows. I have seen birds in a bird bath before, but oddly enough, I had never seen them splash around. I stopped to take a picture and then moved on.
2:15
I took a right on Kenmore and left on Webster. I found a stranger to follow. It was a man no younger than thirty on a phone call. I kept a distance of about twenty feet between us. He walked straight for a long time. It was not until 2:21 that we began to pass Oz Park. I could not help it, but I stopped following him. I found it calming among the trees and well-kept gardening work. It reminded me of a park I had back at home called Woodland. I walked into the small gated area where the Scarecrow statue resided. I took a picture of the field behind it and admired the scenery before moving on.
2:21
Before following another stranger, I wanted to find something. The last time I was at the park, I saw the Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow statues. The only one missing was the Cowardly Lion. I knew it had to be somewhere. I looked around and thought of places I had not been yet in the park. There was a pickle court right next to two tennis courts. As I walked there, I noticed two dogs. One was an American Bully, and the other was a Goldendoodle. They did not bark at each other, but there was some kind of tension between the two. I could not quite place it. One seemed to be suspicious of the other. Weirdly, I felt like that was most people I saw on my walk. Whenever you make eye contact with a person on the street, your immediate thought is, “What do they want?”, “Do they need something?” or “Are they dangerous?”. Cities are highly populated, and in a dangerous city like Chicago, where shootings have occurred, people want to keep their guard up. In an article called “Radical Flâneuserie” by Lauren Elkin, she talks about the complexity of walkers in Chicago. She says, “These paradoxes and contradictions encapsulate what we all face in the city. Do we want to blend in or stand out? Do we crave anonymity or fear loneliness?”. I believe people may have the notion to be recognized for something they are wearing. However, nobody really wants to be stopped on the street of Chicago by a stranger.
2:22
I found the Cowardly Lion. He was hidden behind some trees and on the corner of Dicken and Larrabee. According to the plaque below the statue, the Cowardly Lion became a citizen in 2001 during June. There was also a caption saying that the statue was commissioned by the Oz Park Advisory Council. It also had a bunch of names of people who were being memorialized. I was not sure about their significance to the statue. I imagined it was their help with the park.
2:27
I decided to loop around the park and find a new stranger to follow. I ended at the target on the corner of Lincoln and Webster. There was a lady and her dog. Later that day, I went on the internet to find out what type of dog it was. It was almost definitely sure it was a black and white Border Collie. I followed them down Lincoln past the Dairy Queen, Potbelly, and Insomnia Cookies. The woman and the dog turned right on Halsted Street. I thought they were going to the water fountain, but they kept going straight.
2:32
The woman suddenly met up with a man that came out of his apartment. I decided to stop following them and quickly turned around. I went down Fullerton when all of a sudden a wave of tiredness grew over me. I knew I was ready to go back to the dorm. During my walk back to Ozanam Hall, I began to use more of my five senses. Every time I have gone on a walk I could hear cars. The sound of their engines would roar, and sometimes sirens would move swiftly past me. That was nothing new. I used my sight and looked around. I noticed that the majority of people who were standing still waiting for a crosswalk tended to be on their phones. I took interest in that thought, and I tried spotting it out during the rest of my walk back.
2:35
I began using another sense. I started to feel. I focused on the bottom of my feet on the cement sidewalk I was standing on. I then looked over at the crosswalk pole and put my hand on it. It was slightly cold and almost sticky. I felt like If I kept my hand on the pole long enough it would soon stick. I was not sure how to describe this feeling while writing this or when I first felt it.
2:37
I looked around and thought about using my taste sense when all of a sudden I was hit with a disgusting sewer smell. For some reason whenever I am walking around the city. There is some kind of sewage stench that lasts for about ten seconds. I am not sure why this happens and why it does so consistently.
I returned to my dorm right as it hit 2:40. I was honestly shocked that the walk only took me half an hour. When I looked on the map to see how far I went it seemed like it would take longer. I enjoyed my walk because it made me feel more comfortable navigating the city. It also gave me perspective on other people I see when walking. At the end of the day, everyone is focused on themselves and nobody else. If they see someone, they may wonder for a second what their deal is, but other than that, they have their own self-interest in mind. That is one of the reasons people find the “following a stranger” assignment funny. Nobody would ever want to go out of their way to see what another person is doing. I did not discover much about the people I was following, but I discovered the pattern other people walking Chicago go through every day, which I find more interesting.
I am thankful that I get to walk Chicago freely. I did not realize how privileged I was until I read this sentence from “Radical Flâneuserie” that briefed women in France. Lauren Elkin said, “Before the twentieth century, women did not have the freedom to wander idly through the streets of Paris.” I never realized how lucky I am to be able to roam freely around the city. My Walking Chicago class has given me some of the most enjoyable walks of my life. I would not want those walks to be taken away from me.
