It’s an imposing sight from the highway.

Giant skyscrapers hover seemingly everywhere you look. Traffic is constant and steady, even at 2:30 a.m. last Friday morning.

The pace of life just seems faster than it does in Charleston, or any other city in Illinois I’ve ever visited.

And for a student from southern Illinois, this is all a little intimidating.

I was in Chicago this past weekend for the annual Illinois College Press Association convention. As I drove into the city in the early-morning hours this past Friday, the same thought hit my mind last year when I attended the convention.

How long until I leave this god-awful city?

I’ve never enjoyed my time in downtown Chicago. Growing up near St. Louis might have something to do with this feeling. But in my previous trips to the Windy City, I’d encountered rude people, bad drivers and just an overall disdain for the third-largest city in the United States.

I even wrote a column in this same space before Thanksgiving in 2006, lambasting Chicago and declaring that it needs to be a separate state from the rest of Illinois.

But something changed this year.

I still dealt with rude people and bad drivers. That’s almost a given in any major city in this country.

But all that seemed inconsequential. Walking around the city on Saturday afternoon, with the sun out, the wind not too brisk and just the constant bustle of many different people, made me think.

Why had I felt such loathing for this city for such a long time?

Whoever doesn’t want to visit Chicago doesn’t want to experience life. The cultural diversity is unlike anywhere else in this state and almost anywhere in the nation.

The architecture of Chicago’s buildings is outstanding and surreal to look at. What I once thought of as big, ugly, view-obstructing buildings, were now seen as wonderful architectural masterpieces that everyone should be so fortunate to see.

I even got lost in the city on Friday night, trying to make it to my sister’s apartment in suburban Wood Ridge.

Normally, I become incensed when I get lost driving, but Friday night, I just went with it.

And I’m glad I did.

In a five-minute stretch, I saw a Croatian cultural center, an Islamic bookstore and a Cantonese restaurant.

I even had a tolerance for the backed-up traffic the city has to offer. Instead of pounding my steering wheel with my hand and cursing under my breath, I chose instead to stare out my window at Lake Michigan or glance back at Millennium Park.

About the only thing that still made my blood pressure rise, though, was the sight of the space ship that landed on top of Soldier Field.

It took about an hour for me to navigate my way out of the city late Saturday afternoon. But as I left, a serene feeling overtook me.

My disgust for the city was gone – and I realized Chicago is not imposing at all.

Matt Daniels is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7936 or at mwdaniels@eiu.edu.