There is no reason to hide that Baltimore has been a little different from any of the other places I've lived. It has been a trial, leaving the people, city, a life I knew, and begin calling this my home.
Living in the Nations Capital for four years, though it is technically a city, it is a different kind of urban setting. Greenery, national parks, monuments are all around. A truly inspirational place to experience in my formative years. Before DC, I lived in a small suburb in FL. Again living in Florida is a paradise of sorts. I always said I live where people vacation. So when I moved to Baltimore I did not have a direction or plan just knew I had to try and survive the next year. As I tried to navigate this new life and a new city I found myself not in the best frame of mind. This all changed when I started to notice the art and murals all around Maryland's capital. I decided to try and take photos of these massive pieces of art, and I began to look up see art that surrounds this Charm City.
Honestly, I was not very happy in Baltimore, but I soon began to see more beauty in this city rather than the ugly I had been focusing on for so long. This change of mind and outlook gave me something to look for when exploring the city, and it also gave me something to get excited for when I located a new piece of art I hadn't seen before. While driving to different places, I would be in the passenger seat keeping a keen eye out for paintings. These are only a few of the wall painting I saw in my few months in Baltimore, but they really helped brighten up a city in a time I needed to see the positive outlook on everything.
I am very thankful that I was able to see the beauty in this city that I had a hard time calling home. There is something to be said about trying to change how you feel about a situation when viewing through a different frame. Framing in the social sciences is a concept of perspectives that people create from their social construct of reality. Changing the framing of Baltimore made it more appealing, I was still aware of the foreclosed town-homes, or poorly kept infrastructure, but my framed idea of the city changed. I controlled I how felt and responded. I created a better situation by looking at it differently.
I would not say that I overcame my emotional response to a difficult and confusing chapter in my life, but I had a crappy depressed situation that I took back control. At times it feels that we stuck and have to live passively till we put in the time to physically change, but is powerful to realize our own individual command of the situation.
-Thank you for reading my personal rant hope you have a great day. I hope if you are feeling overwhelmed by a situation, you keep this in mind that you do have control over your framing and it may help you as it did for me.