City Life

I have lived in the suburbs for most of my life with the exception of the first three years of my life and my time in college, all which were spent in small cities. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and then after college I lived in Overland Park, Kansas which is a suburb of Kansas City.

 

I got married between undergraduate and graduate school and my daughter was born shortly before my graduation. Many young people spend those first few years out of school living downtown in some major city, eventually getting married and playing the dual income no kids things until a child does come along, and then it is back to the suburbs where they grew up thus completing the circle of life (cue Elton John and a baboon holding up a lion cub).

 

I could easily look back with regret about not taking advantage of living that life. Living in the city does seem to have some sort of mystique to it, loads of restaurants of all varities, bars, nightclubs, trendy stores, museums, mass transportation, jogging on the lakefront, the Cubs, the Sox, the Bears, and Oak Street Beach to name a few things. Part of me does look at my lack experiences in those areas with a little wistfulness.

 

The thing is with my personality, I probably never would have taken advantage of half the stuff. I am really not the clubbing and drinking type and with the exception of insomnia, I usually can't stay up much past 11 o'clock without being dead tired in the morning.

 

Basically, for all of its generic sameness, I am content being a suburban kind of guy and I don't really fell totally deprived that I missed on the city scene. I kind of like not having to pay an arm and a leg in sales tax, having my car beat to hell, and being able to find a parking space with ease.

 

About the only thing that I regret is that I have not taken advantage of the the museums that Chicago has to offer. There has always been an excuse not to go, usually related to travel times, road congestion, and the cost of parking. When I went to my conference downtown a few weeks ago, I took the train into the city. I didn't feel like leaving my car in the office parking lot for a week so someone kindly dropped me off at the train station. For about $7.00 round trip, I could easily get downtown. I really don't have that excuse anymore. So, maybe I can discover that small part of myself that I neglected in my earlier years when my peers were living the high life in the city and I was more concerned with diapers and when I was going to mow the lawn.