Deanna Grows in Her Garden City
'Once you’ve lived somewhere long enough, its landscape begins to change with you. Its landmarks--at one time foreign, empty, meaningless--begin to sprout hints of growth as you plant memories like seeds. Soon, a living breathing history of your time there begins to reveal itself.'
[NOTE: Although the timing of this entry is ironic given recent controversy involving Intelligentsia Coffee (tangentially) and Yours Truly (directly), this autobiographical piece was in the works for several months prior to its publication today.]
The following is a Chicagoans Project guest post from Deanna *****, scribe of the blog, *******************.
For the genesis of this project, please see here. To tell your story on CHICAGO CARLESS, email me at mike (at) chicagocarless (dot) com.UPDATE (5/6/18): This used to be a guest post from a former Intelligentsia Coffee barista who asked me in 2009 for the chance to tell her story in her own words on my blog when I told her I was looking to write about the lives of regular Chicagoans.
I was happy for her to take all the time she needed to craft her post. Over a span of several months, I would periodically check in with her to see if she was ready to submit her story.
It was a good story, too, about the self-discovery, growth, and maturity that come from embracing the totality of who you are and where you've been as you lean into your life's current challenges, instead of hiding and pretending that you're someone else.
Nine years later, that same person asked me to remove her story and image from my blog so that they would not conflict with her current professional brand as a writer and performer.
Oh, irony.
Instead of asking me to remove the autobiographical words that I was asked to publish in the first place, I'm thinking maybe it might have been better to have read them once again. Because I can't fight the feeling that a hard-won life lesson got lost somewhere along the way...
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