Moments To Hang Onto

I've taken two trips in the last month and wanted to hang on two moments.

The first was when I was walking around River North in Chicago. I worked there from June 2005 to July 2011. For the first four years of that time, I lived downtown as well. I walked to work year-round. I walked to get my groceries, get my haircut, go to my softball games. I really got to know the streets, the smells, the sounds, the signs, the traffic, the shops and restaurants. 

Then I left for ten years. Then I got the chance to walk these streets again. It's funny, the biggest thing that struck me was the smell. I remembered it. I hadn't thought about it in ten years but I remembered it when I walked around. To me, it's a hot garbage smell. Brit called it hot urine. It's not a pleasant smell, and yet I didn't mind it. It felt familiar in a good way. I surprised myself at how well I was able to navigate around without using my phone. Back when I lived there, I didn't have a smartphone yet, so I learned the streets the old-fashioned way and that stuck with me. 

Overall, walking these streets of Chicago gave me a sense of nostalgia that I haven't felt much of before. Typically, when I get nostalgia I have this immediate sense of trying to recapture it. Like when I visited Kansas City and I get the urge to move back. Or when I think of a great restaurant I used to go to, I want to eat there again. Or if we talk about college, I wish I could re-live those days. But this Chicago nostalgia was different. I didn't want to recapture it. I just savored the memories. It reminded me of a really exciting time in my life, starting out in the real world after college. It brought back all these fun experiences and yet I don't wish I was living there now. It was enough to remember and appreciate them for what they were. 

- - -

The second moment happened on a middle of a 3,600 foot zipline in Asheville, NC. This was my first time ziplining. The experience included three ziplines. The first was a short one through the trees that gets you going about 35 miles per hour. The second one is the longest one that goes 60-65 mph over a giant clearing. The third one is back through the trees, somewhere around 50 mph. 

They explained to us how our brains are really good at processing speeds when you're going through the trees. Our peripheral vision tells us how fast we're going. Makes sense. 

But once people get out over a clearing, our brains don't have as much to compare it to. So it feels like you're moving slower. 

This picture is right where it happened. 

All of a sudden, even though I was flying at 60 mph, time slowed down. It felt like I was just floating out there. I looked to my left and saw this: 

I had never felt this sensation of time just slowing to a crawl like this. It was beautiful. 

Equally beautiful was the rush of finishing the run be entering the trees and experiencing time ramp back up. It felt like I was going from 10mph to 60mph in a matter of moments.