Walking through a Neighborhood Dream

My Dearly Beloved,

I was walking this morning, bright and early, from the Metro (i.e. subway) station to my new apartment and realized , surprisingly, of how delightful I felt strolling through this dream-like neighborhood. Instantly, I had flashbacks of times when I walked through neighborhood nightmares. The drastic comparison in my head helped me to appreciate my simple walk.

This neighborhood that I now walk through to get to work and home is an ideal resemblance of where I would like to live. As I reminisced on neighborhoods that I have lived in growing up as an army kid, I have lived in quite a few places which each had its own "voice". Some neighborhoods were villages surrounded by farmlands, some were laid-back, rural hoods in the city outskirts, some were bustling blocks in urban cities, some were vibrant communities in the suburbs, and some were gentrified in downtown capitols. Sadly, some were neighborhood nightmares (i.e. projects and ghettos).

As I continued enjoying my walk, I had to take some photos of what I liked about this neighborhood. It was peaceful, clean, and fresh. There was a pedestrian crosswalk and recycling bins in the back alleys. Cars were parked properly on the curb, yards were clean and green with flowers and a few bugs, old people were out taking a walk, streets and sidewalks were smoothly paved with no potholes, and the list continues.

The last time I remember walking through a neighborhood where I felt this was a world I loved living in was in a small village surrounded by a farming community in Europe. My dream neighborhood is to just live in a place where people care about everyone in their neighborhood. There's no rush to live life to the fullest, but there's also no laziness and living without purpose.

This is not to say that I know the people in my current neighborhood care about each other, but I strongly believe that the people here must have some kind of likeness in which they all want to live in a beautifully, well-maintained community of nice houses and respectful living conditions. The spirit and atmosphere of an environment says a lot and this is the "voice" I'm referring to.

My dad would always say that people are the product of their environments. As I struggled with his saying I heard mentor say that people can't always change their environments, but people can choose where they live. My stroll concluded with a smile and this thought:  "Make moves...until the place you wake up in moves you."