Most people don’t get the opportunity to visit their homes. I mean really, how can one be a stranger to a place that you already know? It’s hard to be a visitor in the place that you live. However it’s not impossible, because I can say that I was blessed with the chance to see my hometown of Chicago from the perspective of a visitor several days ago. Traveling with my class across the city put me in place where I couldn’t help but look at Chicago with new eyes. Looking back on the time spent there, I think that Charles Dickens put it best when he said: “Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.” As I traveled throughout the Windy City with my group, introducing them to places that I been introduced to long ago, I kept noticing strange feelings of pride bubble up inside me. These were feelings that I never knew that I had before and I wondered where they had come from.
Being at the Taste of Chicago reminded me of summers in the past where my whole family would travel downtown in order to taste the food that vendors were offering. But it was never just about the food for us, or any other family really. We went for an adventure, and more importantly we just went to celebrate the summer, because that’s what summer in Chicago is about: going out, seeing people, having fun, and enjoying the weather. I think that one of the many great things that Chicago offers is summer festivals. Whether it’s the Taste, the Chicago Arabesque festival, the African Street festival, Pride Fest, or Lollapalooza, there are always several opportunities for the diverse groups of people in Chicago to mix and mingle. The fact that Chicago is even diverse satisfies me on a certain level, but to see Haitians, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Ukrainians, Indians, and other races sharing the same space in peace touches me in a way that I feel is rare to Chicago.
Also after being away from the festival for a couple of years I finally began to realize the size of The Taste: it’s not as big as I once thought it was at all. Before, the idea of being at the Taste was very overwhelming because of the size and the high volume of people. But the other day as I got to the end on one side and realized that I hadn’t been walking for very long it occurred to me that either the festival was shrinking or I was growing. And since the Taste has taken up the same amount of space for years, I quickly decided that I was growing. Not growing out of The Taste, but more like finally growing into the Taste.
The Sky Deck experience at Sears Tower was one thing in Chicago that I don’t think I had ever fully grown into. Before Friday, my last visit to the Sky Deck was at the age of four. I had almost no memory of what it was like or what to expect, so when our elevator doors opened to the deck, I was just as excited as my peers to see what lay before us, similar to the sweetness of children to running to open a wonderfully wrapped gift on Christmas morning. I was amazed to see the entire city when I approached the window. It seemed just like the view that I would normally see from an airplane while departing from or arriving to Chicago, except the view wasn’t going anywhere. I could stand in one spot and stare in into the city night for as I wanted to, so I did. The network of lights seemed to go on forever, as if Chicago was the heart of the United States and the lights fanned out into the periphery like blood vessels.
Looking out, I tried to identify as many buildings and areas as possible just to prove that I could; but to a certain degree the night was all encompassing. And more importantly the detail and the distinctions between neighborhoods also seemed to fade. There was no Hyde Park or Wicker Park, there was just Chicago, and it was huge. As I watched the excitement on my classmates faces I felt that same excitement growing inside myself as well. My visitors were appreciating my city, which in turn made me look at my city with greater appreciation.
As the day drew to a close on our second day, a part of our group finally made it to Millenium Park, and in turn got to make contact with “The Bean.” I thought it was interesting that everyone else’s natural reaction was to approach it, while I stood back and I admired from a far as I usually did. But, because we were together I felt obligated to draw in closer with the rest of my group. Now when I first I saw The Bean around the time that it made it’s premier I obviously stood closer to it, but as I got used to seeing it I wouldn’t pay that much attention to it; which is why this particular occasion was so special, because I was closer than I had been in a while.
We got so close that I could see my reflection clearly in the sculpture and it was nice. Without even thinking about it, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a picture of my reflection. Then I looked around and saw that Chris, and several other people not in my group were taking pictures as well. Some probably were tourists but some were also Chicago natives who were just admiring the beauty of The Bean and trying to capture the day. I guess that’s what I was doing too.
Chris, Rashina, Elizabeth and I stood there for a talking. Soon we were sitting right next to The Bean still talking about our time in Chicago, and after a while we were laying on the concrete. I had never done this before that day and I was amazed at how comforting it was to do it. I opened my eyes and found myself staring back, as the reflective Bean was positioned above me. I laid there for a while, looking at myself and my surroundings and felt a peace that I had never considered I’d find in such a heavily populated area.
I noticed the several groups of friends and families that were hanging around the Bean, and even though we all were separated I couldn’t help but feel connected to them. Connected to the three Hyde Park girls taking a picture after an evening at the taste; connected to the three cubs fans who seemed to have just left some sports bar where they were watching the game; connected to the Hispanic family composed of a mother and two grown sons posing for a picture; connected to the seven ladies dressed in black who seemed to be in the midst of a bachelorette party for the one dressed in hot pink; connected to the little girl dragging her father towards the Lake front. It had never occurred to me that something as simple as a piece of art in a five year-old park could connect so many different people. And again I felt that glimmer of pride begin to shine through my eyes.
Looking back on those two days I can find numerous moments when I felt more pride for my city than ever before. There were moments of nostalgia while riding the CTA and Metra trains; there were moments of inspiration while exploring the Art Institute; there were moments of questioning while walking through the diverse neighborhoods; there were moments of joy while eating Giordano’s Chicago style pizza and watching the Sox beat the Cubs on television; they were moments of pure comfort talking to my family on the phone, knowing that I was physically closer to them than I had been in weeks; there were moments of excitement as I saw the sun setting in the far west. All of these moments evoked feelings in me that I wasn’t even aware of and I think that indescribable feeling is part of what Dickens is referring to when he tries to describe home, because it is unexplainable. With this trip, I’ve been to several different cities and I can truly say that I haven’t found one like Chicago yet. This experience has helped me to rediscover home and more importantly it’s helped me to rediscover the pride that I already had for home.
And over the next few days as I continue to process this pride, and think about what it means to be a Chicagoan, as well as an American, the lyrics from Kanye West’s “Homecoming” keep coming to my mind:
Every interview I'm representin you making you proud Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud Jump in the crowd, spark you lighters, wave em around, And if you don't know by now, I'm talkin bout Chi town