There's just something about it.

There's just something about a big city like Chicago that makes it impossible to leave.  I can't put my finger on it exactly, but there's a special quality about the smells, sounds, and sights that makes me feel like the luckiest girl...even when I am pressed against the train doors during my morning commute.  I guess one might find it obnoxious, if not unbearable, to share a rail with hundreds of dirty hands while smelling another person's body odor, but I'm telling you--it brings a smile to my face because I realize that I wouldn't even be experiencing it unless I lived in the city.  And THAT makes it all the worthwhile.  The traffic...the obscene prices...the early morning sirens that wake me up--it's all a small price to pay for calling Chicago home.  Not to say there isn't beauty in wide open spaces and snow-capped mountains, but there's something about a towering skyscraper that will always brings chills to the back of my neck.