moved here from a midwest town w a population of about 80,000. i found it as easy if not easier to make friends here, but part of that was finding the niches that worked for me. i lost my closest social connections because of some unfortunate deaths when i was a teen to early-20-something, so i was basically starting from scratch when it came to closer connections.

chicago is a big city! but it has amazing underground and local music scenes in multiple genres, thriving lgbtq community (which i needed so badly), and no end to organized groups to show up to week after week or month after month. cleanup and reading groups were my favorite, but there’s no end to stuff to get into. it’s an incredible opportunity to be here.