steph's blog

soapbox for a moment, i apologize.

so for those of you who aren't aware of austin's basic demographics, i'll summarize: you've got the west side of the interstate, housing UT, most of the upper-scale businesses, office buildings, downtown, the capitol, etc. then you've got the east side, which is smaller homes and businesses, and without a doubt the poorer side of town. if you asked someone to pick the "wrong side of the neighborhood", chances are it's going to be somewhere in southeast austin (riverside drive abouts), which is incidentally where i've been living for the past three years.

the zip code i live in is, according to the city, where the highest percentage of crimes are committed. you all probably know also that earlier this year, six students were stabbed by non-students about two doors down from my complex. so why this side of town is what i think of when i think of "home", from a statistical standpoint, is beyond anyone's guess. i didn't really know that i appreciated where i live and what surrounds me until a few months ago. what i realized, though, is that east austin is incredibly unpretentious. it's not too concerned with etiquette or with impressing passers-by. and at the same time, it BREATHES, not choked by its own self-importance, not fascinated by its own comsmetic beauty. in it live people who inspire me to keep going and to not let the smaller things of life conspire to bring me down. i've fallen in love with numerous kids who crash into my legs in the checkout line for HEB while playing with their siblings, the homeless man i chatted with about a week ago who graciously provided me with an update to the UT baseball game's score, the other homeless men who hold signs reading "can't lie-i need a BEER" (probably true, most of us do), and in a strange way, even the drivers who go half the speed limit or the pedestrians that walk twice as slow as i think they ought to. i wish i could slow my life down the way they seem to be able to slow theirs.

so, with my move into my house coming up sooner than i expected, i find it strange that i'm just now beginning to understand and love the people that surround me here. they are real, their struggles are real, their poverty is real, and all of it is so beautiful in the real sense of the word that it leaves me to wonder how i will take living among the slightly more rich and famous, whether i'll fall in love again or wish that i could uproot my current neighborhood and bring it closer to my campus life. i guess we'll have to see.

in conclusion, to the people i see where i live...
thanks for teaching me about how the real world works more than any class i've ever taken... thanks for keeping me grounded... thanks for showing me that being deeply spiritual doesn't interfere with your ability to have fun... thanks for the smiles... thanks for showing me what true beauty is, what it means to fall in love with people in general, to forgive and forget, and above all, to live. thank you... thank you... thank you... i hope that someday i can repay you all.