Lizzie McQuillen
The City Outside of Loyola

            I visited Baltimore for the first time my junior year in high school, for the sole purpose of seeing Loyola.  Instead of touring the run down alleys on York Road, or seeing the people in line for a meal at Beans and Bread in Fells Point, I saw blonde-haired and blue-eyed Loyola students greeting each other on the grassy quad.  I toured around academic buildings and residence halls, observing the size of dorm rooms and the quality of the computers.  Although I loved campus of Loyola, I never got a chance to experience another side of Baltimore, the part of the city that is home to thousands of people. 

            It wasn’t until I participated in UNITE with the Center for Community Service and Justice during September of my freshman year that I saw a little bit of what Baltimore is truly like.  Throughout the weekend I spent time with many people living on the street and others living in transition homes.  At first this community seemed foreign and unsafe to me.  Lots of people carried around plastic bags containing their only possessions, and thanked volunteers for serving them the first meal that they had in days.  After hours of being immersed in this community that seemed so far away from the one that I had been attending classes in, I started to see a sense of love and faith that most of my Loyola peers seemed to be lacking.  Throughout the weekend I not only gained a greater appreciation and understanding for Baltimore, but I began developing a different perspective on life.  Through the stories that many of these people were telling me, I was reminded what is truly important about each day.

            Although I still have a long way to go in terms of feeling comfortable in Baltimore, I feel as though I have gotten a jump start to what the “Year of the City” expects from the students.  This year I hope that I can do more service and get to know more people that call Baltimore their home.  I want to discover more neighborhoods that give the city its quirks.  I hope to find tiny shops and restaurants and appreciate every unique corner in Baltimore that I can find.

            I think that the year of the city calls all of us to recognize the world outside of the Loyola bubble, and appreciate the people who have always called this city their home. Even though I have been here a year, I know that there are more aspects of Baltimore that I still have to discover, and I hope that the Year of the City will help me to see Baltimore more as a home, rather than “the place that Loyola is located.”