There Goes the Neighborhood

I have to say, I loved growing up in my neighborhood. Across the street from me there's a small park tucked away (as well as a big one only a few blocks down) that I would play in all the time. And whenever I'm in the mood to go see a movie, only two blocks away there's a theatre! If you turn the corner by the theatre, there's a whole strip of restaurants from all around the world, Italian, Thai, Japanese...it's all delicious! One of my favorite things about where I live, however, is that one of my best friends, Kara, lives only around the corner. We grew up together, practically as sisters. Over the years we have established our own friend circles and began seeing less and less of each other, though we talk all the time and pop by each others houses quite often. It's nice to know that when I'm locked out of the house I always have a place to go.....not like that happened yesterday or anything.....


There was another girl who lived on Kara's street our age, though I don't remember much about her. Her name was Samantha, and when we were about 4 or 5, she died in a strangling accident while playing around with the chords attached to the blinds. I was too young to understand what had happened, but I remember my parents and neighbors being upset.


On my street/the streets by me, the houses ranged from your average, nothing special house to beautiful big homes. Since the economy has tanked, suddenly all of the more expensive houses have gone up for sale, as well as some of the normal houses. There have been new projects and suddenly two lot mini mansions have been popping up, with new young, wealthy families moving in. Since I first began high school I've been able to take advantage of this opportunity, and I now have a few families I regularly babysit for. So in all, I'm happy that my neighborhood has been changing, but to me there's really nothing that different about it.