Paradise Lost, Paradise Gained

I fell in love with Chicago twenty-seven summers ago, and moved out here a year later.

It's hard not to fall in love with Chicago in the summertime, with the lake glistening bright blue against the backdrop of skyscrapers towering over sandy beaches crowded with folks playing hooky. In summer, it is impossible to imagine the frigid, wind whipped wasteland our city becomes in January, impossible to imagine that this urban paradise can be anything but a playground for kids of all ages.

Especially for twenty-somethings. As I strolled along the lake with my daughter yesterday in her new downtown neighborhood, I was reminded of how, when I was introduced to this place at twenty-four, it seemed as if everyone in the world was twenty-four, give or take a few years. That hasn't changed. The lakefront of Chicago's Gold Coast is still packed solid with people of that certain age, when the world is full of possibility but you're too young to see it. It doesn't take a genius, though, or even someone made wiser by age, to appreciate the moment that is summer in the second city, a moment that passes swiftly but is powerful enough to last twenty-seven years and beyond.

Over the years, as I have migrated northward, distancing myself ever further from the magical urban neighborhoods by the lake, I have often forgotten how beautiful this place can be. It's my daughter's turn now, and she seems to get how lucky she is. She seems well aware that this unencumbered phase of her life will be fleeting, and she is poised to take advantage of all Chicago has to offer. Even in winter. Sure, the lazy days at the pool in her building will become a distant memory, and runs along the beach will be temporarily forgotten, but who can beat not even having to step outside to go to Whole Foods? Winter in Chicago can be just as magical as summer, if you make the right living arrangements.

At the risk of being a royal pain in the ass, I will visit my daughter downtown often. I will enjoy the memories -- of being twenty-something at the beach, of being thirty-something with two young children in tow for a walk along the lake, of being a person lucky enough to have found a city like this. And I will enjoy watching my daughter enjoy it as she passes through the different phases of her life, creating her own memories of the city by the lake.