2024 09 03

Chicago at night, as seen from The Robey Hotel in Wicker Park. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I’ve been around the country this year, specifically spending time in Nashville, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland and some smaller towns. One obvious visible takeaway is the 15-minute factor. I’ve noticed that upon arriving to these cities, I’ll be fifteen minutes to my destination and I’ll still be in what I consider to be a rural landscape. Then, suddenly, you enter a city. While in said city, you no longer realize how close you are to nature and nothingness. Chicago, on the other hand, is a more urban landscape stretching far into the distance. It’s impossible to place yourself fifteen minutes from downtown and not still be within civilization, unless you go straight east into Lake Michigan.

It’s interesting to me how places get a reputation. Everyone knows North Dakota, for example, as everyone knows Chicago. Everyone knows Ireland, yet most people likely don’t know Bangladesh, despite having 34 times as many people. The point is, places gain a reputation and acknowledgment far less than their actual capabilities. Chicago has a much greater GDP than both Dakotas combined, I’d wager, yet we get stuck with a reputation as determined by representatively few, while the Dakotas enjoy their relative strong representation with little incentive to invite more people to partake in their territory.

My point is, get out of your bubbles and explore reality, because it’s often far greater and far worse than what you’re being told.

-Clayton