I’ve lived my whole life, minus 4 years of college, in the Chicagoland area. I love my city with its beautiful lakefront, fantastically diverse population, and wonderful food culture. Summer in Chicago is like no other time or place in the world. I’m not exaggerating. Chicagoans come running out of their houses in Chicago ready for concerts, beach time, and neighborhood festivals. We live for the summers!

So will this be our worst summer ever? We will have limited access to our favorite places and events, no Taste of Chicago, no neighborhood festivals, limited beach access, and no roof top happy hours. How will we survive this summer? The summer is our life force and helps us build our strength for our brutal and long winter. What if we don’t have our summer to recharge our weary batteries for another snow and ice season?

As kids in a Chicago suburb, we rode our bikes to the Aqua Center to spend sunrise to sunset swimming and running around with our friends. My family drove to beaches, parks, the zoos and museums to enjoy all that Chicago has to offer. The combination of Midwest values, big city culture, and a clean beautiful lakefront, Chicago is the epitome of perfection when it comes to big cities. I’m both biased and correct. And yet now I face a summer without many of the characteristics that seem to make Chicago so wonderful. My heart hurts in so many ways as we face a deadly illness and the loss of so many aspects of our pre-Covid lives.

The Summer of Loss…and Hope

As is so true of Chicago and its people, hope springs eternal. We love our Cubs and we stood by them for over a century waiting for them to win the World Series. We get up on bitterly cold days, start our cars and get to work. Eight feet of snow doesn’t stop us and neither does a polar vortex. Not only are we hopeful, we are also hearty and unstoppable. A pandemic won’t keep us down. Not this summer and not ever.

This summer will look different. We won’t be crowding into the Taste of Chicago or Lollapalooza. North Avenue beach will be quieter and so will Michigan Avenue, but we will be back. We will be back in all of our diversity and yet similarities. We will love our sports teams and we will disagree on our sports teams. We will disagree on the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, yet we will band together to enjoy a glorious Chicago sunrise or a west side sunset. We will be kind to strangers who visit our city and always stop and help when asked for directions. 

There can be no such thing as a worst ever summer when the people of Chicago are involved. Watch us as we take care of each other despite what the media says about us. Come visit us next summer and you will see a city filled with love and life. Meet me at a roof top bar and I’ll buy you a beer and a hot dog with mustard, but don’t even think about asking for ketchup. We won’t abide that. 

Love,

Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC