The easiest way to get to 1841 North Laramie Ave from Austin, Chicago by 10 AM every weekday without a car is to take the Green Line at Austin via Ashland/63rd, get off at Laramie & Lake, then take bus 57 towards Grand/Latrobe and get off at Laramie & Bloomingdale. In theory, this journey should only take about 33 minutes: a 5-minute walk to the station, a 12-minute train ride to Laramie & Lake, a 14-minute bus ride to Laramie & Bloomingdale, and a 2-minute walk north towards the building, meaning I could leave my house at 9:20 AM.
Public transportation in Chicago is a rite of passage for newcomers. Despite its numerous benefits
over private car usage, it can be difficult to navigate. I had visited Chicago a few times and only used the trains, which are easy to navigate with clear stations, platforms for delay and inactive train updates, and CTA personnel available for inquiries. This time, however, I had to learn how to use the bus system, which was unfamiliar but could cut up to 20 minutes off my transit time. In other words, I missed at least one bus every day during the first week and boarded the wrong bus going in the wrong direction three times that same week. It was humbling.
At first, I was really annoyed with myself, wondering, “Why am I struggling with this? If I’ve triple-checked everything and still get on the wrong bus, what am I missing? Should I just Uber it?” Then, I became frustrated with the people around me who, despite hearing my struggle, offered no new
information on how to navigate the system. My frustration stemmed from insecurity. What is wrong with me that I can’t figure out how to use the system efficiently when so many others just seem to know?
While it didn’t overwhelm me, by the end of the week and the start of the next, I accepted that my
commute would be extra long until I could see the patterns in the system.
And I did. By the end of the second week, I knew everything: which buses to take, which ones
ran on time, which ones rarely showed up, and what time specific lines stopped running. It was liberating.
This experience with public transportation, however, is not uncommon. On the contrary, it is a shared
experience among those who aren’t Chicago natives. While I didn’t receive great advice the first week, I
did hear many stories of people having similar experiences and recounting the ridiculous adjustments they had to make when using the system.
As I recapped the week with my mom, it hit me. Every time I get a glimpse of what my calling
could be, insecurities chase me, and I find myself lost in the confusion and uncertainty, often aborting
missions. I prefer to take the Uber rather than figure out a system that could take 3, 4, or even 5 shortcuts to reach my destination. Realizing this, I started to be more aware of what I was avoiding at my internship and recognized that I haven’t been as open as I thought I was to this new and unfamiliar space. It was eye-opening but motivating.
Long story short, if I leave my house by 8:55 AM to catch the 9:06 AM train via Cottage Grove at
Austin Station—which goes in the same direction as Ashland/63rd and runs approximately every 6
minutes—I can transfer to bus 57 towards Grand/Latrobe at 9:25 AM. This bus always arrives on time,
unlike the 9:32 AM or 9:42 AM buses, which have spottier arrival times and more delays. Getting off at
Laramie & Bloomingdale, I’ll arrive at the office with 15 to 20 minutes to spare. During those spare
minutes, I take the time to prepare and create a list of goals for the day, reminding myself of what I want to achieve from this experience and how I will need to go about it, allowing the process to flow naturally.
-Noemi Vela, By the Hand