I have ventured through the looking glass and discovered...magic?

Being from Wisconsin, arguably the most "outside looking in" one can get when pertaining to places such as New York City, I grew up with wholesome values: hospitality, leisure, patience, politeness, and a notion that most people are similar to me. I am not speaking in terms of race, religion, political ideology, etc. I just mean at the most fundamental point…humans are alike.

Yes, of course, a human is a human no matter what; however, each mind in the entirety of this world has its very own unique thought process. This knowledge may have lurked in the back of my brain for eighteen years, but it never truly manifested until I moved to New York.

New Yorkers are accustomed to the strange (or just very different), so where you might stop to stare at a naked cowboy in Times Square, natives or well-acclimated transplants to the city might give these characters little more than a glance. This experience of seeing people almost as characters in a strange dream happens more often than not. The expression "the freaks come out at night" may resonate in describing the L train at two in the morning on a Saturday, but picture this: instead of "freaks" they are just other humans with quite possibly very different appearances and lifestyles than you. In fact, there's nothing freakish about it because to my original point, all humans have their very own unique thought process.

The Midwest is great, I love it, and I would not have wanted to grow up anywhere else. However, the Midwest can also be described as fairly homogeneous in appearance, ideology, and thought process. Let's consider the Midwest is a sea of blue fish swimming around in the same area of the ocean. Once in a while, a red or striped fish wanders in and the bluefish stare at these unknown fish with confusion, disdain, and apprehension. Even when more red or striped fish come over the years, the bluefish still view them as different. Now, imagine being at the heart of the ocean with whales, dolphins, sharks, fish of all colors and patterns, coral, seaweed- you name it and it lives there.

I am a blue fish that has wandered from my base near the shore to the heart of the ocean. Sometimes, I am afraid of what I am seeing, or I feel lost and uncertain among all of these different types of sea life. However, the more I live in the center of the ocean and observe these very different species interacting, the more I begin to realize that it is not scary or mysterious because I, the bluefish, and my fellow sea life, seem to be of the same understanding that despite our differences we are all apart of one ecosystem: an ecosystem of power dynamics, greed, empathy, cruelty, kindness, love, strength, and weakness- but a singular ecosystem nonetheless and to me, that is magical.