can I ever describe anything?
I was just walking around my neighborhood, the place I've lived for 19 years. I felt as if this place I call home was at once intimately familiar and completely foreign to me. As I stood at the corner of my street and busy Haverhill St., my surroundings seemed so alien, but at the same time I knew exactly where I was -- nothing was different. I know every crack and bump on the sidewalks near my street.
My experience reminded me of the time Jehae and I went to Dorchester on a whim -- only to find one depressing street lined with taverns. But what I felt today was not sadness but pride. It's hard to be proud to live in one of the poorest (if not THE poorest) cities in Massachusetts -- a city that consistently ranks lowest in education, highest in crime in the region, highest teenage birth rates, etc. But Lawrence still has a vitality that I didn't notice during my brief trip to Dorchester. Lawrence remains an immigrant city even though most of the jobs that initially attracted immigrants are long gone. For whatever reason, immigrants come here and bring their own culture and traditions. Without them, Lawrence would be a ghost town solely populated by the poorest of the poor who can't afford to move elsewhere.
Do I want to live here for much longer? Certainly not. I don't want to live in a city where most people stay inside, lock their doors, and try to avoid interacting with everybody else. Of course, I'm not helping by sitting at this blasted computer........