My New Neighborhood

            I just moved into this new neighborhood on the west side of Chicago and I can say that I just might like living here. The neighborhood seems pretty close-knit which means that everyone knows everyone already. I think that I could get used to it, seeing as my old neighborhood was kind of the same way. But there are so many things about my old neighborhood that just doesn’t compare to this. One reason is that there weren’t any cars driving down the block blasting music so loud that it could burst our eardrums. Back in my old neighborhood it was very quiet.

Although there are bad things about the neighborhood, there are also a lot of things that I like about the neighborhood. I like the fact that it has so many stores and shops around that are walking distance. This is a very big advantage to me because I absolutely love to shop, but as I’m walking down the street right now I see little children playing outside with their family and friends and they all seem so happy. The time right now is borderline summer and fall, but as I’m walking I can smell the wavering scents of barbecue all throughout the air. There are lots of people out today, probably due to the weather. I cannot really talk badly about the neighborhood because this is where I’m going to be living for the next couple of years. As I am walking around the park near my house, I am appalled, because there is trash everywhere. Now what I don’t get is if the people here are so close-knit, why do some of them not get together and clean this park up. This trash in the park is annoying because there is actually a trash can right here and it’s not even being used. That is the type of things that makes me angry to be living in this neighborhood. Back in my old neighborhood we had a club at school that came together every Saturday and cleaned up the local park because we cared about it that much.

As I am wandering throughout the neighborhood, I see this beautiful tree. The tree has leaves that are starting to change colors. Even though the sights are beautiful, I don’t know if I can see myself living in this neighborhood long enough to start a family here. I say that because even though the people are close-knit, there are still plenty of police swarming around the entire neighborhood. That tells me that the police department has had a reason to have plenty of police swarming around this area specifically. I do believe in the protection of the Chicago Police Department, but something must’ve happened in this area to have this many police. Now in my old neighborhood we had the average amount of police, but never this many. This neighborhood actually looks pretty dangerous. There are a lot of people hanging around the corners and they don’t look as friendly as the other people in the neighborhood.

I don’t think I would make any friends around here. I know I said the people here are so friendly and close-knit, but that is only about half of the people here. The other half are so mean and they have such nasty attitudes and a permanent scowl on their faces. But I think I wouldn’t make that many friends around here because the girls around here have such nasty attitudes. By nasty attitudes I mean that while I was walking around there was this group of girls, and since I’m new to town I decided to ask them for directions because they looked about my age. That was the biggest mistake I’ve made since I’ve been here because they responded so disrespectfully, I almost cried because I was so offended. They said things like “Do we know you?” and “Get the f*** out of our faces.”, and I wouldn’t even dare repeat those things my worst enemy, let alone a person I just met. They just took it overboard and it wasn’t even caused for. I didn’t even want to be as disrespectful as them so I just retraced my steps to find my way back home.

On the way back home I saw the same people on the corner and the same swarming police. I also smelled the same scent of a leftover barbecue and I saw the little kids still playing around outside. As I walk up the street I see my house insight and I can see the front steps of the house. I could honestly say that I’ve never been happier to get home.