Personal Narrative: Still Living In Los Angeles

California has always held a special place in my heart for many different reasons. I was born and raised in this state and although there has been many drawbacks to being Californian, it has always been a place of comfort for me. California has played a huge role when it comes to the person I am today and why I have such an open mind, love for different cultures, and my willingness to work hard for the so called “California Dream.”

Hello, reading over your discussion about growing up in Inglewood California brings to mind my African American co-worker who talks about living in Compton. She tells us often how growing up in that area you had to carry either a gun or a knife and be on guard whenever you go anywhere. She is a very dear friend of mine and she reminds me she is a changed person from the way she used to be. Her mother still lives in California but in a better neighborhood now but she is planning a trip to see her mother. My friend often tells me years ago she and I would have never gotten along because she had so much anger inside her. I am glad my friend did get out of that neighborhood alive and somehow found in her heart to not keep anger inside.

It was April of 1999. My family was at home. Children were running outside. The asphalt was burning. Cars rolled up to the entrance of the apartments and BANG. I grew up in Stockton, California. Surprisingly, as a minority, I wasn’t really a minority. There were, in fact, a large and diverse population of Asian-Americans. But, Stockton is not the ideal place to live. It was hot and dry, almost to the point of a drought. Stockton was also ranked as the one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in California. So, having a nice and safe family is kind of difficult. Eventually, my family decided to move to Crescent City, California when my dad retired. It was a world of difference. There were trees, plentiful water, and a nice cool temperature. This

I was nine years old when I moved to California from Japan, all the way across the world. Moving to California was quite possibly the weirdest experience that has happened to me as a child. Trying to move from a place that I pretty much spent my life in than literally going across the world without knowing anything about it was very foreign to me, however my parents used to live in california for about one or two decades.

I was born on October 23rd, 1999 very early in the morning the very first person to carry me was my dad. When I two years old me and my mom moved to Las Vegas, and lived there for about 6 years then soon move back to California. That was in early the early 2000’s when that happened . Few years past by then my sister was born June 23rd, 2005. I was staying with my cousin at the time until she was born then I went to see my sister on the day she was born.

I pray all is well with you and that you’re staying dry this weekend. I wanted to write to you just to be open about life for me right now. We had a conversation a few weeks back about me moving to Miami, FL and as time has passed I am more convinced that it is important that if possible, that I should make the move. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, my purpose in life is to seek and save those that are lost – to share my faith and help those who desire live for God to do so. I have been asked by my church (which has been my sole support since moving to Gainesville) to move to Miami on a supplemental mission team to help strengthen the church that was planted about one year ago now. I have prayed about this multiple times and each time I ask God

Many people move around to different states throughout their life, and I have had the opportunity to live in what feels like two different worlds. I have spent most of my life in Bradenton, Florida, but at the age of ten I moved to the small town of Cleveland in the north east Georgia mountains. The two towns are completely different in my opinion and only someone who has lived there would completely understand what I mean when I say two different worlds. The weather, the people, and the different opportunities are just a few of the differences between the two towns.

When I was about 11 years old I moved to Canton Michigan from Las Vegas Nevada. It was a dramatic change in my life. Not only is it quite a distance from Nevada. But there was also a different outcome that were made from the people to the weather and not being able to see my dad anymore.

Many people believe that Orange County, California is the best place to live for its great location, community and economic strong hold. But what those people forget to take into account is the people that make up this community. Living in Mission Viejo, an overwhelming amount of people think that this a place of Eden, that has the greatest neighborhoods to raise children. Well they are wrong. Our self-inflicting wounds are done by teenagers who choose to poison themselves. I was once one of them.

Growing up in a small town near the border of Arizona, I had always displayed an interest in seeing the world–the different cities and sceneries. But at the same time, I felt at home in Arizona. I breathed for the desert air, the grinched-colored cacti, and the occasional roadrunners. Imagine my surprise when I found out, shortly after my parents split, I was moving to New York City.

It was June of 2013 and I was in my room cooling, watching “Good Luck Charlie”. My mom came into my room saying that she was ready to move out of New York. Obviously I did not want to move out of the city I was born in. My mom never liked living in New York, so she always thought about moving. So the plan was to move in August. Time went by and I was thinking about what North Carolina would be like. I really wasn’t thinking about the friends I was leaving in Brooklyn, that never crossed my mind.

The United States has always been “home” to me because I feel that I am a bit of the quintessential American story. I was born to immigrants hoping for a better opportunity than what was offered from their third world home country. I was raised and went to school here, which blended many of my parent’s home culture and the new American culture. As I have matured, I have noticed how much my life has been influenced by society’s opportunities and issues. The American character is the crossroads of opportunity, struggle, and hopefulness because the it is not only a reflection of the founding father’s ideas, but also a reflection of minorities who have interjected their experiences that shaped my American journey.

Born in Palm Springs, I grew up wishing I lived at the beach. At age 5 I got that wish when my family and I moved to Carlsbad, CA. My parents, Lee and Steve, had me at an older age; so all three of my siblings are older than me by a significant amount. This put me into the category as an only child. As a kid I was involved in musical theater and dance where I made some lifelong friendships. After getting comfortable in the city of Carlsbad my parents decided it was time to move back to Palm Springs. The move was not too hard for me because I did have some friends in the area. One of my biggest regrets is not continuing musical theater when I moved. I made a whole new group of friends and it was a fresh start for me. I went through middle school

Moving from New York to California , I was exposed to more education opportunities. During my junior year of highschool I started taking college classes after school at the local community college. My counselor told me about this opportunity because moving from New York i had already met all the requirements to graduate. This, I felt was a big accomplishment because I had never taken such rigorous classes before and never after school. I took one college class before during the summer so i had no worries of trying to keep up with my high school work without falling behind on my college class either.

I began riding the L.A. Metro buses by myself as an eleven-year-old. Through the bus windows, I observed leaving my predominately Latina East Hollywood home and entering the “Westside” through Culver City, a predominately white part of greater Los Angeles. Was segregation a part of the urban landscape that I grew up in, or had I developed a lens that negated codependence? Did I take part in compartmentalizing my home’s cityscape? Frustrated about borders, wage gaps and historic segregation of my East Hollywood home of 18 years, I made work in response to the walls that divide Los Angelenos from one another. I want to unveil the human tendencies that build our segregated existence to ultimately shake and twist them.