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This storyteller’s piece is based on a conversation with Aley Clark, a lifestyle and wellness writer and content creator who moved to Chicago from South Carolina in March 2023. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I moved to Chicago in March 2023 from Moncks Corner, SC.
I really needed a fresh start. The South was pretty sleepy and I was feeling very stagnant there. I wasn’t growing much. I felt it was time to leave and had always longed for a bigger city.
I’m a lifestyle and wellness writer, and I can write from anywhere.
I didn’t have any close friends before I moved to Chicago, so it was a fresh start.
Alley Clark stands in front of a framed piece of art in his Chicago apartment. Courtesy of Alley Clark
Meeting new people is like building a muscle. I did it when I moved to New York and Los Angeles. I also lived in Indiana and North Carolina.
A lot of the connections I’ve been able to make in Chicago are because of social media. Social media has been a big stepping stone. People are starting to get interested in my content. Tick ​​tockand then it starts to be reflected in real life.
When I first moved to Chicago, I was just going to different places on my own, getting out and talking to people and trying to hopefully make connections.
But we have a season of social interaction here, and people are outside during the summer, so we have to navigate that season. Once people are inside, they rarely go outside and they rarely socialize. The coffee meet-ups and “let’s go for drinks” meet-ups end in the dark winter months.
[Chicago is famed for its cold winters. From 1991 to 2020, Chicago had an average daily maximum temperature in January of 31.6 degrees Fahrenheit and a minimum of 18.8, according to the National Weather Service.]
When I first moved to Chicago in March 2023, it was still winter and cold, so there wasn’t much social interaction.
I think I’ve been a little spoiled this winter because a lot of people in Chicago have said, “It’s not been really cold this winter,” so it’s extended the social season a little bit, and I’ve been able to get out and about, so I’ve been able to take advantage of that.
But then the new year rolled around and I was stuck inside my house doing absolutely nothing. I live alone and it was too cold to even think about leaving the house, let alone going out with friends. I just stayed home and enjoyed my own space.
When the weather got a little warmer and above freezing, we continued to make an effort to meet people.
It was a lot easier to make friends in LA. If someone moved to LA, it’s really easy to connect with them. When I was in LA, I was involved in a few communities, like local church groups. Plus, I was able to connect with different people through work. That really helped me expand my social circle.
I’m still trying to understand what it means to build community in Chicago, and I’m doing that through The Wellness Collective. Black Girl PlaygroundIt serves as a digital and physical third place where play, joy and creativity come first. It feels like I’m running my own social experiment trying to build community.