My Edmonton is one that has remained relatively confined to the southern districts, so for the majority of my life I have been prone to pessimistic assumptions regarding its potential to provide me with new opportunities. The city itself is much larger than I had previously imagined--where beyond downtown there existed neighbourhoods that ended just short of 118th avenue and beyond South Edmonton Common, farmer’s fields and an airport. Edmonton is a city with one of the largest space to inhabitant ratios in the country, and although I would like to attribute this condition to the unfortunate generalization that I mentioned in the former sentence, it would not be true. I have instead been living in a sort of ‘bubble’ (to quote those in the class from ‘the Park’), confined to the south in such a way as to lack consideration of the other half of this city. So by considering the prompt questions for this entry at this point in my life—I have just recently been attempting to expand my horizons so to speak, I might argue that it is a city of unrealized potential, as there are some areas with which I am unfamiliar and whose unfamiliarity will most likely take a long time for me to overcome. This is how I try to feel about Edmonton now, as it would be hard for me to fall in love with a city if hadn’t the inclination that there might be something out there to love.
I can definitely relate to the feeling of being trapped in the “bubble” that is the south side. I find that because everything I need is close by, I never venture out to “unfamiliar spaces” in Edmonton. I think this is often the case when one lives in a city. You hear stories of people in NY or London who become trapped in their district for the same reason. Hopefully we can both overcome this and get out a bit more!
ReplyDeleteAlso I really enjoyed the alliteration in your first sentence.