Over my break from university this past term, I decided to make the trip down to Chicago to hang out with friends down there. I booked these tickets long in advance of the election that happened only roughly a week before I arrived, and it was the furthest thing from my mind when I booked, believe it or not. That will be important to this article in a way, but more than that, I was just excited to see my friends.

I originally visited ‘Chicago’ in 2022. I say ‘Chicago’ in quotes, because I never truly stepped foot in the city of Chicago that year. I went down for a MFF, or Midwest Furfest. I did get to see many of my American friends that year. So many flew from around the country to visit and convene in one spot, to spend a weekend just enjoying each other’s company. Unfortunately on that trip and during that convention, I never got to see the city of Chicago. My trek was almost always between the hotel I was rooming with other friends in, and the convention centre. It’s why when I told friends about going to that convention, that I was going to come back at some point in the future and see the city properly. I wasn’t going to say I had properly been to Chicago until I stepped into the city.

And so, over the break I went. The first full day I had in Chicago, we went to a part of the city called Boys Town. I didn’t know much about it, but my friends insisted that we go there and explore. The area reminded me of Davie Street in Vancouver, a place for queer people of all types to be able to socialize, shop, and just be generally ourselves in a space that is comfortable. The streets of Boys Town were lined with many different shops, some more kinkier than others, many just simple shops that sold apparel of different beautiful colours. We even had the chance to pop into a local thrift shop, where I got a wonderful Chicago mug for $2. We went to a few stores around the area, and I of course had to pick myself up a Boys Town shirt. I couldn’t help but just constantly be looking around at the beautiful Chicago architecture. The brickwork around me kept catching my eye with every building that we walked past, and even the vines that grew up the side of some brought such a comfy vibe. The streetlamps started to glow with a beautiful amber tint as we walked around the streets towards my friend’s car, and I couldn’t help but feel happy that these spaces exist.

Now at the beginning of the article I briefly mentioned the US election. Why? The reasons for that is complicated, but ultimately, it’s because I’m glad these spaces exist. I feel a similar level of comfort with these types of spaces when I visit Vancouver and go to Davie Street, and I like to think of these areas of cities as these beautiful pockets of solidarity. A message to the world that no matter what you try to do to us, we are here, we are queer, and we aren’t going anywhere. I am so happy and grateful that the spaces for us to be ourselves exist out there in the world in great quantities. In a world that is so hellbent on telling us to go away and just live our lives quietly, we have the way to say ‘No. We are here, and this is our space’. I quickly get exhausted in this day in age with every attempt at trying to suppress the community, especially here in Alberta where I live. They’ve tried banning pride flags on sidewalks, and the Alberta government rushed through bills blatantly attacking trans folks. There is already groups that are looking to legally push back against these bills. With all of these things happening both in Alberta and around the world, these spaces that exist still give me some solace that things will be alright. In these spaces we are safe, we are seen for who we are, and in these spaces, nobody can take it away from us. We will be okay.

The second day of my trip involved a few friends and I visiting the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. This is the first time that I have ever been to a museum that we legit could not finish looking at before it closed for the day (or at least before we needed to pay another $25USD for parking). Sadly we didn’t get to see the 007 Science exhibit, though it was extremely tempting. What we did get to see was amazing. There was so many interactive exhibits, a massive swirling tornado of mist that went up at least 3 stories high, and an extremely loud tesla coil that would go off every 15 minutes or so. Kids going through would be absolutely fascinated and intrigued by it each time it would go off, but unfortunately none of them seemed to want to stay for the explanation of why it happened afterwards, which made me a little sad because the science of why those bolts of electricity show up the way they do is fascinating. I suppose since none of them were on a school trip and being forced to listen they just decided they didn’t need to pay attention and instead went over to the perfectly aligned streams of air nearby that would hover a ball on top of it.

Although most didn’t stay to listen to the explanation of why, I did, at least for a little bit. There’s something about museums like this that bring out the curious side of me. The part of me that doesn’t think about a lot of these things as often as I used to. Why does the electricity make such loud noises? Why the path of least resistance? They’re pretty simple questions to answer in a way, but I’m glad I never stop thinking about them.

The thing that fascinated me the most at this museum was the miniatures. There was a large section of the museum focused on miniatures. From what I can tell a large amount of it was dedicated to the city itself, and later that day I found many of the sections of the miniatures physically around the city. The scale of it all was impressive beyond belief, and the attention to detail on each and every bit of it was amazing. We spent a good amount of time sitting in there watching the model trains go around, and the day/night lights on the ceiling changing to show the city in different states of being. Model-making on that scale is an art form I will never truly understand, but fully appreciate the time and skill that it takes.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the downtown area with my friends. I cannot understate how gorgeous the architecture is. Churches and buildings with vines on the side, lit up with amber lights, the rapid transit system buzzing overhead as we walked from Flat Top Grill (amazing by the way, definitely enjoyed the food there!) after we had previously enjoyed the thing that many people know Chicago for, The Bean. I forgot it was called Cloud Gate because of it’s bean shape, but it was just as gorgeous and tourist packed as every photo I had ever seen of it. Of course, I definitely took a picture with it.

The rest of the trip past this point was spent bouncing around the suburbs of Chicago, between my friend’s apartment playing Mario Party and an electronics retailer that for whatever reason had both a fountain synced to music in the centre, as well as a candy shop that was in no way related to the MacBooks they were selling next door. It was weird, but good. Going to the states at this time was weird, but so incredibly rewarding. Getting to spend time with these friends that I made online through something like VRChat is nuts to me. The fact that we can be united by a tool like that and turn it in to tangible real life friendships that span countries is a part of the modern age that I will always come to love. It’s an amazing thing the internet, it’s brought me out of Canada multiple times to meet amazing people who give me all the more reason to keep going and give me hope day after day. It gives me hope knowing that there are safe spaces for my friends, for the community that we are all part of, and that somewhere in the world, there is someone I have yet to meet in person, or yet to meet that I may just travel to meet, and to make amazing memories like these, that will last a lifetime.