When I was in high school, I loved trying to figure out how to get to the top of buildings. I’ve always had a fascination with tall buildings – to the extent of having a blog about skyscrapers when I was 11 and 12.

I loved the view from the top. I’ve always loved the journey of getting from nowhere to a place with a view and I’ve loved even more hiding in plain sight. Where you can see everyone else but no one can see you (is this creepy enough yet?) I liked the idea of being on top of a building where no one can see you but you can look out over the city and see a beautiful skyline and sunset.

I had a few friends in high school who would tag along on my adventures and we never got too crazy. Usually it was just parking garages and occasionally we would find a building that was free to enter and we would take the stairs or elevator as far as we could up.

A couple of times there were buildings under construction that we were able to go into and find a way to the roof.

Eventually, I changed some of my ways when I decided I didn’t want to end up in a court building defending why I was trespassing on private property, so I decided only to go into buildings that didn’t have “no trespassing” signs on them. This was of course just following the letter of the law, but my conscience felt better about it.

One of my favorite experiences doing this was in the West Bottoms district of KC about 5 years ago. At that time there were still a bunch of abandoned buildings in the area and it seemed no one cared if you went up in them. There weren’t signs that said no, there didn’t seem to be fences, and the front door on the building was unlocked.

It almost screamed out “come explore me!”

For someone like myself who loves to explore and adventure, it’s still one of my favorite things I’ve done in KC. It’s so simple, just going to an abandoned building, but even in simplicity, there was excitement. A little bit of excitement of “what if we get caught” but also realizing you’re really not doing anything wrong and not putting anyone in danger.

And the reward, if you can find out how to get to the roof, is so exciting. You throw open that door at the end and boom! All of a sudden you can see the whole city sprawled out for you.

I’ve become warier of this as I’ve gotten older and care more about not doing illegal things, but still, some of my best memories are finding rooftops of abandoned buildings with close friends.

What a bonding experience.

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