I’ll get to my post about Europe in a second. I haven’t posted yet due to a busy week after I got back and then this past week, which I spent in Chicago for a business trip.

It was the second time I’d been to Chicago. The first time was also for work, back in 2009. I was thinking about how much has changed since then. I remember distinctly that when I went to Chicago four years ago, my anxiety was at its peak. I was getting panicky and teary over stupid little things, and I remember crying a lot in my hotel room over the things I was worried about.

That all seems so far away now. I’m really happy to say that I no longer have that kind of anxiety—like, at all. It’s kind of crazy how much it’s improved. In the last year, too, I feel like I’ve let go of caring about a lot of the things that used to cause me a lot of worry, and it’s incredibly freeing.

When I visit a city for the first time, I like to listen to a song about that city—like a song from this playlist. Four years ago when I was in Chicago, I was listening to the Sufjan Stevens song “Chicago,” and it couldn’t have been more appropriate. I was worried about mistakes I’d made, or thought I’d made, and there’s a repeated line in that song: “I made a lot of mistakes.” That line in Sufjan Stevens’ soft voice in the state of mind I was in became really comforting to me.

This time in Chicago, when I had some free time, I had some deep-dish pizza and went to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and down to Navy Pier to ride the Ferris Wheel and some other rides. I got pictures like this:

Oh, yeah, and I also listened to the same song. I still love it, even when I’m in a calmer place.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-cUdmdWgU]