Wish for 2013

My hopes and dreams for the year 2013

We have been living in our place at University of Chicago since September of 2006. I thought we were only going to live here for one year and then move to the suburbs. If you read the first sentence you know the second sentence didn’t happen. I admit that it has been nice for my husband to walk to work. Our little community has a lot of amenities. If I don’t like what is happening here, I can just drive about 20 minutes up Lake Shore Drive and I have the city at my calling. We can even take the train and go into the heart of the city and not pay for parking.

So why would we want to leave all of this? Well we live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 kids. Currently they are sleeping together in one bed but the older one keeps growing. Soon he will no longer fit in the bed as we have them situated. If we were to add another bed into their room, there would not be enough space. We have 2 dressers and of course some toys. They only way next is to go up, but I don’t know how that will be received. We do have a great outdoor space but I feel as we live in a bubble or fishbowl. There are three other taller buildings that surround us and we are constantly being watched. It is a great space for the area we live and it is ours. It would be nice to have more space. But more space will come at a price.

If we move out to the suburbs, then my husband will have to commute and that will take a drain from our family. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to gain something in return. We will of course get more space, more bedrooms, a yard, and possibly a pet. Yes, we do have a cat now but we can not get a dog—which the kids are really asking.

Yes I will miss all of the amenities Hyde Park has to offer, but one thing we won’t miss is lack of security. It is a shame that our neighborhood is one that is preyed upon. Numerous thefts, violent acts, and who knows what else. You can not walk out of your house and talk on your cell phone or listen to music. Sure they have amp up their police force and have a “safety” person on some corners, but crime still happens.

Will it be safer in the burbs? Who knows but I have lived in the burbs of Chicago all my life and I have really never encountered anything.

So why talk about this now? My husband may be up for tenure this year. Yup, finally right? Well I say maybe because he doesn’t have much funding and well his committee members said that was one thing he needed. He is applied for a few grants and will know by the end of January. If he does not have funding it is possible that they will postpone putting him up for one more year. I don’t know if I can stand to be here for one more year, but we shall see. Even if he goes up , he won’t know his fate until the middle of December.

We look forward to pursing our tenure goal and hope everything goes our way. Goodness knows that my husband certainly has worked so hard for it and really deserves a break.