Personal Narrative: Chicago's Airline Affected My Life

Attention passengers an inbound train towards the loop will be arriving shortly. This short, descriptive, and monotone sentence spoken by an automated program over the loud speaker of Chicago’s orange line platform may be meaningless and insignificant to most. But in fact, this monotone sentence impacted my childhood and made me into the person I am today. Standing on Chicago’s orange line platform in one hundred degrees heat was miserable, but hearing those train doors open with the rush of freezing air conditioning hitting against my face was absolute heaven. My father was very active and loved traveling through Chicago, my brother and I always were forever along for the ride. My brother had more energy than most children and explored everything,

My father taught me everything about the city including the many opportunities Chicago had to offer to how the city has changed drastically over the years. I was just the passenger on this ride we call life while soaking up all the world had to offer. I was the passenger. I listened entranced to each story my father told while simply staring out the window taking in the stunning scenery every day growing up in Chicago, I loved being the passenger. My dad listened to some pretty incredible music, music I now listen to in my adult life. One song in particular frequently stood out to me “The Passenger” (Gardiner, Iggy Pop). I saw myself as the simple yet well diverse passenger hearing this song at a young age had influenced my childhood and has followed me throughout my adult life making me into the person I am

I was the oldest of three kids, including myself, and very independent, which required me to be independent. Chicago turned into my playground. My brother and sister attended day camp that I volunteered at, while my parents worked during the day. While my siblings were at day camp I took the train and bus wherever I needed to go. The Chicago transit authority has this amazing green laminated glass on their older train cars that I always stared out of going from place to place. As the passenger, I adored the urban atmosphere and the beautiful Chicago night sky illuminated by Chicago’s enormous skyscrapers. In the song “The Passenger” The artist begins the song vividly with these lyrics, “I am the passenger. I stay under glass. I look through my window so bright. I see the stars come out tonight. I see the bright and hollow sky. Over the city’s a rip in the sky. And everything looks good tonight” (Gardiner, Iggy Pop). These simple and steady lyrics accompanied with my favorite instrument, the ukulele, gave me a sense of exhilaration during travel. Obviously, the stars are absent at night in Chicago due to light pollution but the lyrics illustrated above presented a vivid image of looking at all the wonders the city had to offer simply by being the passenger. By looking out the window I felt a sense of wonder and a deep-rooted appreciation for Chicago unknowing the opportunities it would present me later on