Introducing Me
I believe in order for you to better understand the business I am starting to put together, you should probably get to know me a little bit better. My name is Georgena Hurst (married name is Burningham, but let’s be real, it was too much work to change it legally). I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. So although I’m not a native Chicagoan, I have come to really love this city.
As a child, all four of my siblings and I had the opportunity and privilege to attend an AMI accredited Montessori school through third grade. Since then I have been sold on the Montessori approach to learning and child development. I’m not saying I have the perfect Montessori house, etc etc. I just really love the concepts of respect for children, allowing them to participate in the day-to-day of life as much as possible, encouraging them to follow their interests, and contributing to community. I want to try to incorporate these as much as possible into our cafe.
I attended college at BYU in Provo, Utah. There I studied Linguistics, Korean, and Music. I have been fascinated by language for many many years and am in awe of the human capacity to learn and use it. It is honestly a true miracle. I also started studying violin when I was four years old, studied piano and music theory for about five years, and enjoy singing very much. Music has been a huge and important part of my life for a long time. There is nothing quite like working in harmony with others to make beautiful music. I hope we can incorporate this into our space as well.
My husband, Seokhee, and I met in college in Utah. Soon after getting married, we took our first chance to try a new place and moved to Chicago for my job. We then proceeded to have a kid, buy a house, and have another kid. All during a pandemic. Yes, two COVID babies. Needless to say, it’s been a whirlwind of five years of marriage. Several months after having our first son, I took a break from paid work to take care of my baby and home and literally everything else (am I right?). We soon had another son and our life was very full. Challenging (still very much is lol), but I love these boys so much and would not have it any other way. Soon though, I started getting the itch to go back to work and continue my career. I had never seen a working mom up-close (as in, in my family), so I was pretty nervous and uncertain about the whole thing. But I knew I wanted to give it a try. I could always quit if it didn’t feel like the right thing. However, it has had a profoundly positive affect on my family and my relationship with my children. Not only are they developing wonderful relationships with their teachers and peers, they also get a break from me! I think both them and I value our time together more. We appreciate each other more. It’s been quality over quantity. When I’m with them it is much easier for me to be 100% (or maybe 95%…) focused on THEM.
Why a play cafe?
The short answer: because our community needs one. When I came across the idea, which you can read more about in my last blog post, I just couldn’t stop thinking of it. How amazing would it be to have a space for your children to play and for you to (mostly) relax all within walking distance from your house? A place to escape the freezing cold and snow or the heat and terrible air quality? Or just someplace different to go? An absolute dream.
On top of that, after experiencing the extremely isolating affect of having two babies during COVID, I figured this is something our community really needs. I love the idea of our space being nestled in the neighborhood and easy to for local residents to get to. I dream of it becoming a place where we can find peace, empathy, support, understanding, respect, and hopefully at least a little bit of a break.
Why Chicago?
I know every city has it’s issues, but there are so many wonderful things we love about Chicago and our neighborhood of Jefferson Park. We really appreciate the diversity of cultures and people. My husband is Korean American (and btw I’m white) and so our children are multiracial. It is important for us that our children grow up in a place where it is extremely normal to be different and not feel like they have to conform to one type of culture. On just our block there are several other multiracial families as well as families from Ukraine, Columbia, Poland, and Ecuador. Additionally, from what I can tell there is also quite a range of political opinions and religions represented in the neighborhood which I honestly also appreciate. It is good for our children, and all of us really, to see that not everyone is the same and that our huge range of differing life experiences give us different opinions, faith practices, and passions.
Relative to most other large U.S. cities, Chicago has some pretty great transit options. There’s a big network of trains (which my sons very much appreciate) and buses, as well as ample parking in most places and not too much traffic to make driving impossible (ahem, New York City).
We also love Jefferson Park because it is easy to get out of the city (if you’re going north or west), easy to get to the airport, and easy to get downtown (assuming there isn’t a bunch of construction on I-90).
One last thing about me
I am a dreamer and a doer (anyone have some kind of personality/enneagram label for me? lol). Some criticize me for doing “too much”, but how I see it is that I actually follow through and do my best to make my dreams a reality instead of just talking about it. I don’t think this play cafe is going to be easy. I’ve been trying to stay extremely mindful as I currently am balancing a family, full-time job, and the beginning stages of this business. I want you all to know that this isn’t easy, but I am committed. I want your feedback but also would very much love and appreciate your empathy and understanding as I know I will tumble and make mistakes on this journey. Let’s figure this out together in order to make something that our community really wants and needs.
