Mikayla Husting: Three Days Three Ways

The route that I chose was not very direct... at all. The 21 bus picks up right outside of Kenilworth on Prospect. It connects to the 15 bus at North and Holton. The 15 drops off by MIAD on Miwaukee. On the first day, I asked my roommate, Sarah, to drive me through the route. It was around 8 or 9PM. The main thing I observed throughout the three days was that driving was the most hectic, especially at night. All of the other cars are driving so fast, so you have to drive fast too. It's incredibly difficult to read street signs, day or night, and we ended up missing the turn on Ogden, so we turned on the next block. This made me realize that cities are probably laid out in grids so that they are easier to navigate. It was a nice night so we had the windows of the car rolled down, but the city smelled like garbage.

On the second day, I walked. It was hot that day, and I foolishly decided to wear jeans anyways. The walk started off nice and easy. I was observing and photographing things that I thought were interesting. Right away I noticed that I hadn't noticed any of these things on the nighttime drive through this route.

I noticed that I felt vulnerable on my walk. Even though it was daytime, I had my guard up because I was walking alone through the city with my new camera. I was also feeling generally on edge because of the heat and knowing how far I had to walk, but I carried on.

While I was walking, I noticed that MSOE seemed to be halfway between Kenilworth and MIAD (if you took the route that I took) and that I had never really paid attention to MSOE's campus before. I ended up sitting down on some steps by their athletic field for a few minutes to rest my feet and get out of the sun. When I finally made it to MIAD, it was very anticlimactic. I felt out of place. I hurried to catch the bus back home.

On the last day, I rode the bus. I didn't bring my camera with me. I sat in the very back of the bus and looked silently out of the window. It was cold and it looked like it was going to rain, which is my favorite kind of weather - the time right before it rains. I felt the safest on the bus. I like the largeness of it and the way the motor hums beneath me.