After reading A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz I began to think about where I come from and the place I grew up. I am from New York, specifically a suburban town about 45 minutes from New York City. I was born in New York City but moved when I was 2. The town I live in is very small. I grew up with the same kids from pre-school and all the way through when I graduated my senior year in high school. You get to know the people very well. the town I live in is very quant. I sort of think of it like a paper town. All the houses look the same, are all on the same street.
It took coming home during this pandemic to truly appreciate my town. It is very quiet, every morning I hear the birds chirping which wakes me up. My neighborhood is filled with kids. Growing up when I was little, I would be playing outside all of the time with my neighbors. Then, as time went on all of that slowed down and people weren’t outside as much. Recently, I have been taking walks around my neighborhood. I have been seeing people who I haven’t seen since my young years growing up in this town. It really made me think about how it took being “locked up” in your house to see people again after so many years who you probably wouldn’t have seen normally. When walking outside my house I see the cul-de-sac that I live in with all of the houses facing it. I wake up and wave to my neighbors from across our different lawns as I go outside and grab the mail. Living here is very calm and I enjoy that. By the time I was graduating high school I was definitely ready to go to college. After growing up in a small town it made me want bigger things and to meet new people and have new experiences. Even though I was ready there are always parts of me that missed home. Being home now I have all of my local spots I enjoy such as the local bagel place and Italian restaurant with great pastas. This time being at home has really made me reflect on how grateful I am to be home and safe with my brother, my mom and my dad. This has been the longest time the 4 of us have been home under the same roof for this amount of time in a while. There are definitely silver linings that have come out of this and I am grateful for that.
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