Sometimes when I've driving down a road or highway that I've driven down a thousand times, I pretend that I'm a visitor from somewhere else that is seeing all of this for the first time and trying to imaging what the lives of the people in this city might be like.
Make sense?
I guess because I've spend a lot of time on road trips and been to tons of foreign cities.
Each time I'm driving through an unfamiliar city (be it Albuquerque, El Paso, Phoenix, Garden Grove, Etc.) it all seems so beautiful and different and kinda...peaceful.
I always try to imagine what it would be like to live there, what it would feel like.
I imagine the different jobs and places to see.
I imagine what it would feel like if that were my grocery store (all grocery stores have a different feel) or what it would be like if that were my 7-11 that I always frequented.
And the city lights always captivate me.
I imagine how the sun would soak the city and reflect off the buildings and land. (That's vital!)
And even the most common places like Applebee's and Target and Blockbuster hold a romantic mystique.
I guess that's simply because it's an unfamiliar version of the familiar.
I wonder if you move to somewhere else if that feel ever wears off.
I lived in Chicago for 3 years. That magic never really wore off for me. It always seemed new and wonderous.
And that's ironic because I think the beauty of living in one place your whole life is that you know the place, the ins and out.
You know where you are. Not just in the city, but in the world.
You feel like you have a place you belong.
And every turn you make, every street you drive down brings back a flood of memories and feelings.
I love that! That's a very transcendent feeling. It's absolutely wonderful.
Yet, on the other hand, moving to live somewhere else, there's always that mystique and romance of new discoveries and seeing everything for the first time and not having that sense of belonging.
So yeah, sometimes, I pretend I'm a visitor to Dallas and what they would think and feel seeing it all for the first time and I wonder if they get that romantic feeling about Dallas that i get when i visit other places.
Or sometimes, when I'm driving down the highway at night, I'll pretend that I'm in California and everything is new to me, that the ocean is nearby, and new sights and experiences await around every corner. I'll give Dallas that cozy SoCal feel and let the joy of vacation sweep through me, if only for a moment.
Or sometimes I pretend I'm in a city in New Mexico and have just spent the whole day driving through the desert. And I think that's part of the mystique, if you've been driving all day, you know what land surrounds the city, it makes the city feel like a small dot on a map and not it's own unique place. It's just a more populated place in the middle of a desert or plain. Makes it all feel small. But if you live somewhere, it doesn't feel that way at all. It feels big.
Do other people do this? Probably not, huh? It'd be comforting if other people did!
It's probably just because I'm a dreamer. I think i just see the world differently.
And that's ok, because it washes everything in a mist of beauty.
....ooooor maybe I'm just a plain ole freak!
I wouldn't call it being a freak. I've never pretended to be from somewhere else, but I do wonder about the people in the car next to me. Sometimes I imagine what their lives might be like, what their expression says about their day. Especially when traffic gets bad and you just want to honk someone's face off I try to remember that there is a real person inside that vehicle and maybe they're having a really terrible day. At least your bemusing doesn't make you seem stalkerish.
ReplyDeleteI love the way traveling develops your sense of the world.
ReplyDeleteI spent 2 weeks in Japan and that has done more to form my view of America than living here does in 2 months. I saw so much that is different, but it made me appreciate that sense of belonging that I get here.
I'd love to roadtrip and experience that feeling more.