May flowers
This city is all mine
Shared with 2.6 million souls
Some encounters I hold
cautiously close.
I’m running towards life, not from
Seeking experience and gripping
onto myself the best I can as I forge
a new path.
On the shore of Lake Michigan
These waves hypnotize
Swaying like the slow roll of dunes
Over hundreds of years.
The barrier islands find me
in the Midwest. Not so salty but
sweet and spicy.
Goth hippie cowgirl
Finding her way to an unstable ocean
Migrating with the moods of the wind.
A steward
Gliding across the Turtle’s sand
Rocking ancestor’s history in its soothing
Morphological freeze.
Sister grasses rest beside
Bearing the weight of the colonizer’s spoils,
Soaking the secrets
Of all who wander by.
Following the Great Lakes
On a bright May day, I flew over an ocean. Bright blue and seemingly calm from the thousands of feet above, the open expanse reflected the possibilities and uncertainty of moving to a new city at 22. I had seen Lake Michigan before - from the shores of St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, setting foot on the site of a project my colleagues and I were evaluating under the National Environmental Policy Act.
To give us context of the grandiose body of water and its associated communities, our project manager and Michigan native, Rob, drove us along the roadways from Traverse City to Mackinaw City. On an extra day once field work had concluded, we felt the currents where Lakes Michigan and Huron join, crossing the Straits of Mackinac by ferry over to Mackinaw Island. I came to know these sites, the project, and its stakeholders well.
I learned about the impacts seen regionally across Great Lakes towns, cities, and Tribes/First Nations, as well as adaptive strategies for resilience. I learned from these two projects and the inventive, collaborative leadership & passion by leaders in research in policy the unique significance of the Great Lakes region.
I was so inspired that I now found myself flying to one of those trailblazing cities. And as I finally saw the iconic Chicago skyline peek out behind the wing of United 1744 bringing me to a new life, I felt my anxieties melt away in embrace of excitement.
The arrival in Edgewater on the first weekend of May 2023 perfectly coincided with Chicago’s spring awakening. After beautiful blooms in the DMV to reminisce on my lifetime of spring out east, touching down in O’Hare with my carry-on luggage, the City greeted me with a second wave of warm weather and sunny skies.
The first friends I would make as a new resident would go on to tell me of my fortunes to have bypassed April’s weeks of cold, rainy days.
The week leading up to the move was building up with anticipation, excitement, sadness, pride, and luckily no uncertainty.
After experiencing my first bout of Chicagoland traffic in the Uber to my first solo apartment - a lucky find I sealed via Facebook Marketplace - the previous tenant Chris greeted me in the transfer of his home of 1.5 years to this young stranger eager to start a new chapter in his beloved neighborhood.
Stepping into the restored 1950’s building, the vintage furniture and thriving plants of the lobby and hallways caught my eyes. 5630 N Sheridan Road has some character.
