Cities have always fascinated me. From my childhood in Milwaukee, I remember driving through or passing the city, its skyline speaking importance and productivity. Big cities were where fun things happened: museums, parks, festivals, food, people going places, sporting events, live theater, Christmas displays and lights, and even beaches. They were always exciting to me, but they also were only visited with any substantial amount of time on special occasions, visible yet inaccessible. With every subsequent trip that I have taken, the desire to be living right in the thick of things has only gotten stronger - Florence, Venice, Washington D.C., Portland, Paris, Boston, Salt Lake City...Thus, the goal on my bucket list has remained.
With age and income, I have come to realize that my lifelong desire may never manifest itself the way I have always imagined. It wasn't until a weekend visit this summer that I realized that I may have actually gotten to live my dream. My friend Libby took a job as a flight attendant last year. Though not her first choice, she was assigned the home base of Chicago. Off she moved to the big city, and when I visited with my family this summer, I took a few days to visit her. Little did she or I know at the time that I would be pretty much living my dream for the next few days.
I had been to Chicago before, but this trip was so much better than all the others combined because she lives right in the middle of the action. Before, I had stayed with friends in the suburbs, and we would take day trips in to visit the art or science museum. It was always fun, and I was always impressed, but it was short lived. I was visiting a tourist attraction, but never really connected with the city.
This time, I was staying with someone who lived in the city - not the skyscraper, penthouse part, but where the real people of Chicago live. We took the buses and trains everywhere. We walked a lot, and saw neighborhoods that you see only if you go deliberately. Climbed the stairs to Libby's old, no air conditioning, and full of architectural charm apartment complex. We climbed to the roof to see the city skyline at night. We ate at local places. I had a tour guide, but the kind that lives and plays and works in the city; the best kind. For all anyone knew, I lived there too (well, my camera kind of gave it away, but still...). And I suddenly realized that while I wasn't paying rent there, while it was just for a few days, while I was still only pretending, because my dream was so open-ended on my list, I could decide if I had accomplished it or not. And I felt really good about saying that I had.
I'm only 35 and I still have a lot of living to do. I may get to realize my dream the way I had pictured it when I was little, but there's also a strong chance that I may not. But that is OK. The thing about dreams is that they are often more fun when you get to share them with other people. For a few days, my friend, without knowing it, helped me live a little bit of one of mine. And my list, as a result, just got a little bit shorter.
(See the pictures in the posts below)
(See the pictures in the posts below)
