When the writing appeared on the wall for me to follow in the steps of the horde of friends who had already left Washington, DC, it didn’t come as a surprise. It’s part of the modern condition — you’re supposed to be able to pick up and exchange one place for another for the next opportunity.
But this felt hard. We don’t celebrate city anniversaries like we do for relationships, but if we did, this would be one of the longest relationships of my life.
I wanted to commemorate it, but that brought up more questions than answers: what could I really point to as evidence of all my time here? Could I really claim to know DC? Or was it just the backdrop to my exploits transitioning from the can’t-legally-enter-Decades to the the-bouncer-knows-me part of my 20s?
So this past year, I started going on mini adventures. I wanted to explore DC the way I had explored Delhi, or Buenos Aires, or Istanbul – where every corner held the potential for wonder. Even the most quotidian aspects of daily life took on interest — from how water got to homes or the history of public transit — but I realized I’d never asked those question when it came to my own home.
Every bit I learned about DC was like pulling a thread that led me deeper into a web of connections — between choices made years ago, the natural landscape and the city we have today. Stretching first my work SmarTrip allowance and later my calves’ ability to get me places on a Capital Bike, I built up to a more systematic understanding of DC — and a framework of questions I could use to better connect with wherever I moved next. Most of all, running around town helped me feel more rooted in this place.
There’s nothing that really makes you feel part of a city when you first arrive — no induction ceremony, no business card, no badge. Looking back, I wish I had a guide when I moved here — like an orientation you get when you join college or a new company — that lays out the history and the lay of the land (literally) so you can start figuring out where you fit in. I hope this pop-up newsletter can help to do that. It’s modeled after a field guide but one that, in addition to the local flora and fauna, also features humans scrambling around our urban habitat. We’ll talk about the geology of the city, our non-human neighbors, and what’s up with the interminable metro escalators, along with lots of other aspects of the city.
Unlike a lot of field guides, this is not meant to be authoritative; it’s an account shaped very much through the lens of my own experience, which is why this is a field guide and not the field guide to DC. My hope is that cataloguing these microadventures will help me remember my time here; and that it just might give you some ideas too, whether in DC or wherever you may be.
Love from DC,
Saanya
