If you are anything like me, your free time is filled up with some TikTok time. On my For You page, known as an “FYP”, I see many trends, but there is one that sticks out more than the rest. This trend involves people talking about how when they are back in their “Chicago, they feel it,” a play on the lyrics of Djo song “End of Beginning.” Djo loves Chicago and ended up writing “End of Beginning” about how he is his best self there. Chicago is his in a way it is for no one else. Fun fact: Djo is a pseudonym used by actor Joe Keery from the TV show Stranger Things! TikTok currently has 2.4 million videos under this song, making it a very popular trend and video sound.
These 15 second love letters to cities, people, and places are so beautiful. Humans are freely and artistically showing their unyielding love to places they feel they have made their own. Even though this trend may seem repetitive, each video has a unique perspective, giving people the ability to time travel back to where they are most happy and who they are most happy with. We witness the spreading of love.
A few months ago, I even took part in this trend, using my videography skills (or lack thereof) to make a video about the city of Philadelphia. Whenever I can, I take the trip down the Schuylkill and go into Center City, where the skyscrapers loom above. They feel almost too tall to be possible. I filled my video with photos of the sports stadiums with not one empty seat, Rittenhouse Park, and the busy streets around the city that I feel most like myself in. Philadelphia is my “Chicago.”
This trend is a positive and cheerful trend that reminds us of the luck we hold to be able to call certain people and places our “Chicago,” or our home. It teaches us about different perspectives and connects each of us to a bigger picture: love. No matter how different the people and places may be, love is the common factor in each of these videos. How beautiful is it to know that so much can bring us together in a society where we are so defined by our differences?