Forever Finding Rebel Betty

In sifting through the pile of images from Immersion week, I was immediately halted by a constellation of hanging metal. In many ways, this picture reminded me of how much I appreciate the beauty in little things. Things that might seem ordinary if isolated but as a collective provoke a statement just as loud as a neon sign or bright pink tricked out hair. For me, I am constantly searching for interesting, something rogue, something that is off the beaten path — something that always looks for the other side. Creativity is in my bones and as I think of my connection to Chicago; I seek out moments, activities, dives, stories, and other bits that feed my interest in responding to inspirations to be creative and dream up new ideas for my work or just for fun.

I remember when I saw this sign midstream on our long walk, I couldn’t help but smile. I think a good dose of ‘happy’ is important in most situations. Optimism is definitely something I try to incorporate in most things I do and how I approach life. Finding the humanity in others and trying to identify what I can learn or have learned from a situation always keeps me going for the next one.

Creativity and a marathon of innovation does it for me. I am constantly giddy about a new idea, brainstorming the could be’s, and forever thinking of topping things with a new layer of interesting. Chicago is good like that — just when you think you have seen something interesting — there is another something interesting. This part of our immersion experience was my favorite. I loved that it was a gray spitty rain kind of day. The stories that spoke through the murals, smells from restaurants, our tour guide, and the culture that was represented in the obvious and not so obvious places represented a sense of place for me. Identity should be fanned out in ten different ways till Tuesday and it was refreshing to hear stories of pride and conviction when we walked through this community.

So I end where I began — with reminding myself of a mini-motto to always go down the rabbit hole and sleuth out the interesting, the gritty, the ordinary that really isn’t ordinary, the ugly-beautiful, the unassuming, and snits of places and faces that are off the beaten trail in Chicago in order to continue to fuel my fascination with creativity.