Downtown

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Millennium Hotel, downtown St. Louis, looking at the big bending metal landmark across the street. I went up inside the arch in 5th grade, when I was on vacation with my family. We stayed at a hotel just down the street, went to a ball game, visited the once-floating McDonald's on the Mississippi, the whole package. I can remember thinking at that time that this city was just that-a city, unlike anything I was ever used to-big, old, and intimidating. It's funny how things change. Not the city so much as me. Sure the downtown is still tall and cold, but now my view has been filled out with a lot more: specific places, actual people. I'm finding that anytime there is a close community around me, it lights up any environment. What once seemed cold and foreign now is much different. When talking with someone from Nashville yesterday I asked him what he thought of where he lived. He said that it was good, but what made it that was the people. He's right. I've been here over three years now. I don't think this place is so bad.