cities + me

John Hancock Tower in Chicago taken by me

It's finally Friday and I am staying in tonight which is good for me after this stressful week. All week I've been not only craming and doing piles of homework but also thinking on what I can post on this blog which I consider is fashion and lifestyle content. I feel i only post 45% "lifestyle" ("life" tag) content which I originally wanted to include playlists, stories, blurbs/thoughts (no restrictions to how long they end up) - these portraying more about my personality and maybe relates to you and entertain. So I'm here to redeem myself with a story that relate to my recent thoughts.

So I know I did a doodle days (sorry for discontinuing that lol) - on being a city girl and cities but I want to expand on that especially because there is more than just mediocre coffee and watching Gossip Girl. I am from a kinda urban town, Winnipeg (Canada)- one anecdote of me being a city girl. But things that effect - my obsession/love for mass cities and effect on my current life - are traveling and the atmosphere it brings.

The first big city trip I actually remember the events - August, Summer 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada. This was also the first time traveling by train andwhere I first found my true obsession with travel/travel commute. The 3 of us (Grandma, cousin and I) started our adventure with 2 days and 1 night on a VIA train. Other then falling in the shower, the ride was unreal from watching the prairies in the afternoon,  then waking up to sunshine in my eyes and entering the Rocky Mountains. When we got to Vancouver we entered on the cityscape which like most large cities breathtaking. We got to the station and met up with my grandpa who was already in BC, and took a cab to our hotel. After getting there we spent our what I think was 1 or 2 days, in the city - exploring Gastown, Stanley Park, Chinatown etc. My favorite was visiting the Queen Elizabeth Gardens. Those days or day was a hassle, first time on my feet all day but it was definitely worth it especially because it would and is probably the only time I would be the last time I see the city for awhile which turned out true, but I am praying to go again. 

After that I was blessed to travel even more, first plane ride was to Calgary for my aunts wedding (astonishing moment: we flew above city lights!!!!!), summer before 7th grade - a 6 hour flight, 2 hours to Minneapolis then 4 to Florida and +4651918748971 points for me getting to fly for sunrise, and my many trips to Chicago. 

In 7th grade I moved to Illinois, so of course I had to go to Chicago as much as I could. These trips being more recent are veryyyyyyy significant to this process of what my "obsession" is today. I've probably been to this city 6 times which is a lot considering how expensive it is to spend a day there. The trips that got me hooked to the sense of a massive city and my love for it were the 3 I took summer before sophomore year. Factors that caused my passion was the fact that the last time I've been to the city was middle school I've matured and freshman year being your experiment year gradually finding yourself and new adventures and even finding new music aka my city theme song "Diane Young" by Vampire Weekend (which came out the same year as this summer). 

These trips to Chi-Town were important to me because I had discovered a new perspective, new angles and parts of what makes the city, and saw how it all fell together in one big picture like a jigsaw puzzle. The city was full of large statements like Cloud Gate and the very tall buildings like the Sears Tower, which makes me feel I need to make big statements in my life examples like graduating or doing something large for myself or someone else. The city also made me focus on detail what I consider the pieces of the puzzle. I focused on the specific names of buildings, street names, hotel names, their looks and why I like it. You usually hear on tv shows people who know everything about their city and I wanted to feel that way. Other "puzzle pieces" would be the people being all diverse but all have one thing in common, they don't care and still make a statement to me as large as the city. Some of these people are reckless - walking while a cab turns on to a street and the cab driver angrily honking at that man and women walking the whole city in heels, some also being determined - rushing through crowds to work or talking on the phone in noisy streets and some brave - entertaining people to live by dancing on popular streets painted in gold.

If you don't get my point by now from this long spiel - this is why I am in love with travel, commute, large cities and why I know I belong there: I feel connected with the people (even if you don't talk to them) and the atmosphere. I get super googly eyed and feel the need to do slow motion gaze at every scenic part (aka most parts). At the end of the day in the city I reflect and feel speechless like you're LITERALLY in a relationship with that city, you dress up for it, bump into problems ... like my falling in the shower on the plane and it help/inspire me . All the little pieces in my life are like a city - like my room. The lights hung in my room - are like the city lights from a plane, waking up to sunshine from my comfy bed - like the train and dancing and singing around like no one cares - as if I were that metallic gold man dancing in the streets or the pain in my feet - from exploring from the first time in Vancouver to the last few in Chicago.