Trying to Stir Up Ideas In the Freezing Wind

For my walk this week I decided to walk around the streets I previously walked before for our past journals. I honestly couldn’t brainstorm too much while I walked because it was very cold and windy today. About after 10 minutes of walking around Clifton and Fullerton Avenue I decided to go to the Starbucks on Fullerton and Racine Avenue. I got a hot chai latte to help warm me up. I was able to brainstorm some ideas regarding my final project after drinking some of my latte. I would like my final project essay to show how my perspective of Chicago and walking in general has changed throughout this course. I want to explain how I was nervous to start exploring Chicago as a freshman. Before this school year I lived in the suburbs so Chicago’s environment was a very different “vibe” than what I was used to and change can be hard and uncomfortable for me. But now I feel more confident in myself to explore Chicago, discover new neighborhoods, new food, and new people. I would also like to talk about how the “unfamiliar” around me now feels like a home now in my final project. This course has also shown me a different perspective on walking. I’ve never thought about walking so deeply. For example, thinking about all my senses while I walk, what do I smell, what do I hear, or what can I see? Another example is I used to think walking was only to get from point A to point B, but now I’ve learned that there’s so much more to walking than just that.Walking throughout this quarter has had such an impact on me in multiple different ways.

Reading Question: Why might some people not want to venture outside their neighborhood?

In the podcast “The Folded Map Project” Tonika Johnson, mentioned how there’s people in Chicago who have lived in their particular neighborhood multiple years and never went out and tried to learn about other neighborhoods surrounding them. Or in the podcast’s case some people of Chicago have never explored the opposite end of their street. I feel as though the biggest leading reason as to why people don’t venture out to different parts of the city apart from theirs, is because of stereotypes and assumptions made about different parts of the city. For example, in the podcast they played an audio where Tanika asked a group of people if they’ve ever been told to not go to the South side and everyone raised their hand. Many people tend to have a perspective and opinion about the South side before even going there. These opinions and point of views are usually based on social media, the news, and how the South side looks. I also feel another reason as to why people don’t explore other parts of the city is because they are comfortable with where they are. Some people don’t like or want to put themselves in a position where they don’t have knowledge of a certain neighborhood or where they feel uncomfortable. Personally, I know I don’t like to go places that aren’t recongonziable to me because it can make me feel uncomfortable and I get that feeling of the “unknown.” Because of this uncomfortable feeling people or myself may have when thinking about exploring causes them to only stay in one place and not want to discover new things around them. But throughout this class I’ve been able to expand my horizons and discover new places.