The Tale Between Two Cities

**Disclaimer**

This is a personal blog and it is not meant to defame UWM or deter any student from going there. This is simply my experience and has shaped my outlook on city of Milwaukee.

I have back at home since March 13th, 2020. And coming back home for me was a mental whirlwind. Home for me is sacred and peaceful. I was raised in this house and it represents a safety net. I know everyone and it is my safe place. However, when I went away from school almost two years ago, I merged into a new reality that stripped me from the "home" I knew. I completed my undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Milwaukee represents a city of lack and uncomfortableness. It is the top segregated city in America and socio-economic disparity in the black community is evident. During that dreadful season, I experienced loneliness, racism, and microaggressions like never before. When I first arrived, I look back and I represented such courage, strength and bravery. To move out of a place that I never knew. When I got there, what distinguished me from my peers is I was saved for almost a year I clung to my morals and values. I didn't go out and I didn’t have that many friends. I gained my first friend when I was halfway through my junior year. (I transferred as a junior).

When I first arrived in Milwaukee, I was trying to get involved with local politics and community organizing.  However, even with the constant putting myself out there I didn’t have any connections and I was pretty much on my own. I spent my days in the library, doing homework, in prayer, and It was such a routine. I struggled to have any fulfilling relationships and human interactions with my peers. Looking back this was so bizarre because it was college and was supposed to be "the time of my life." However, it didn’t feel that way. I heard so many things before going away to University. One of the things was that I would meet my best friends in college. HA! Don’t believe eve I never thought that being a transfer student would have an impact on my experience as a student and on my personal life. Traditional students, those students who enter college fresh out of high school at 18 have four years of college and have time to explore the city and bond with students.

One thing that I learned away at University. It quickly became a tale between two cities. Illinois and Wisconsin were different! People were treated differently, racism was prevalent, and Milwaukee, WI is truly a racially segregated city. When I would meet people in WI, people were bizarre. I soon found out that they were genuine or authentic in their relationships. Never would inmate to hang out or have the desire to foster relationships. I spent more time wishing that my college years was over.

I had no faculty support on campus. I had no one willing to go to bat for me and I still survived! I will go into deal about my undergrad experience and how to be successful as an undergrad. Aside from the student leadership I dedicated myself to that included me putting myself put there. I still feel as though truly robbed of my undergraduate experience at UWM, the black faculty were distant and not visible. I felt like a small fish being thrown in an ocean and expected to find my way. Another difference between IL and WI is people in IL are warm and friendly and speak. In WI, people are rude and will act like they never knew you. I couldn't get with that trend because I was raised with manners. I knew that something had deeply changed in my interactions with people...A couple of weeks ago, I was walking around the neighborhood with my sister and an older woman on our block waved. now that is a simple interaction but that’s something I was not used to doing back in WI.

As always,

Nikia