The North Shore Cycle

Currently in AS, we are reading the play The Kentucky Cycle, which is a series of nine one-act plays that explore the American mythology of land and how three families fight over the rights to a certain plot of land. Each act has many similar aspects of the act before it, like killing for land, suggesting that it is a vicious "cycle."



Reading this play has made me think of the cycles in my life. One specific cycle I seem to notice is what I'd like to call "The North Shore Cycle" or the "Middle Class Cycle." Whatever you want it to be. This is a cycle of life, that I believe starts as soon as a kid reaches their teenage years. Or maybe it just becomes more noticeable then. You go to high school to do well to go to college. You go to college to do well and either go into graduate school, law school, med school, etc. or to just get a job. So basically you go to college to get a good job. You get a good job so that when you get married and have kids, you can support them. And then you watch the cycle repeat itself with the next generation.

Granted some people are exceptions to this cycle. Some never get married or have kids. Some choose to do their own thing and break this cycle, but it is very rare. This cycle is what your parents expect of you. This cycle might be what you will expect of your children. Whether you become subject to it or not, either way it's definitely there in front of you.

Place

On Wednesday, we had American Studies Day, in which American Studies students attend different seminars throughout the day all dedicated to a common theme. This year's theme was place. Place can mean anything. Where you live, where you were born, where you belong within society. But everyone is still very affected by it.

One of the presentations on AS Day was by Maria Finitzo, who showed us a documentary called The Interrupters. Here is a link to the trailer if you would like to see it. The Interrupters is about an organization called CeaseFire is to intervene conflicts before they result in violence. The documentary takes place in Englewood, a lower income community area of Chicago. The filming of this documentary began as Chicago became one of the centers of violence in the United States.

During the presentation, we discussed how different the North Shore, where we live, is to Englewood, which is only on the other side of the city from us. Finitzo said that many of the kids in Englewood believe they are living for today. They don't worry about tomorrow, it's about surviving this moment. But if you look at the North Shore it's completely different. All we think about is tomorrow. Where are we going to college? What do we want to do with the rest our lives? Everything we do is for the future. We do well in school to go to college. We go to college to get a job. We get married and have kids. We have a job to support our families. It's a huge cycle.

I think this really shows the importance of place. I may receive more opportunities than a kid from Englewood just because I am from the North Shore. I don't have to worry about getting shot everyday. I don't have to worry about not being able to go to college or earning enough money to support my family. I look to the future because I can. And it's incredibly sad that not everybody has that opportunity.