It's A Different World

I live in the same city, but I don’t.

It sounds weird, but it’s completely true. I know there’re several different aspects to each city and there are different suburbs/stereotypes in every city, but there’s one small exception to mine: it’s small. Unlike St. Louis which has its many adjacent towns that people will still refer to themselves as living in “St. Louis,” the town I live in is just that: that town. If you live in an adjacent city, you live in whatever that city’s name is as well, but not the one that’s nearest to it like those “St. Louis” people like to say. 

As a freshman in college my parents basically decided for me that I wasn’t going to live in the dorms, and I needed to find somewhere cheap to live. Student housing around here isn’t cheap at all and that’s where my friend wanted to live and asked me to live with her. Thank goodness at that moment she in a way backstabbed me and in a way didn’t, because I got out of that situation fast. Instead, I found a duplex on what people consider the “bad” part of town. The city is separated out into four sectors: the south side, the north side, ‘downtown’, and the east side. Apparently we don’t talk about the west side, though. I lived on what was the “north” side of the city. There was a nice subdivision that even had it’s own pool, but all around me were trailer parks and not-so-good looking areas. According to the “locals,” the so-called “new ghetto” was down the road from where I lived now because they were cheap duplexes and could fit a lot of people. I put my blinders on and went into the situation, signing a lease, because to me, it looked like a pretty good place. 

What I learned? Just because you live in a “ritzy north side neighborhood” doesn’t mean that it’s  a good place. I got several things stolen from me while I lived in this area. Granted, I lived on a street with all college students, but my car would be locked, and things would still magically disappear. One time, my neighbors went car-to-car searching with a flashlight and broke into every car they thought they had a chance in and stole my wallet. I’d had a bad night and left it underneath the passenger seat of my boyfriend’s car (we were neighbors) and magically the next morning it was gone. I was astounded when various neighbors contacted me saying they had my items. One of my neighbors had so graciously scattered my belongings around the neighborhood, took all of my change, and cashed a $10 check from my grandparents. Real winners, right? These kids were also typically “ritzy” children themselves. 

After various touts with neighbors and roommates, I decided that I wanted to move somewhere with my boyfriend. We stayed at each others houses often anyway and were literally next-door neighbors. My new roommates had a problem with him coming over, but our other neighbors could come over at any time and it “wasn’t a problem.” It was a pretty fucked up situation, and I decided that I wanted to get out of it as soon as I could. The subleasing fee was ungodly, and my boyfriend and I got ourselves into a bit of a situation with moving, so we found a last minute apartment, walked through one day, and signed a lease at McDonald’s less than 12 hours later. It was a whirlwind of opportunity and stress that had been relieved, and I didn’t know what I had coming for me. 

The apartment we moved into was now on the “south” side of town. I always thought that the “south” side of town wasn’t that far away, until we had to drive back and forth with our belongings through the snow to our new apartment. It was disgusting and we had to clean the entire thing. Our neighbors did not seem like the greatest of people, but our landlords had just bought the place, and it seemed like things were going up. Since this was on the “south” side of town, life started to become a lot different. It didn’t take me 15 minutes to the grocery store anymore, I had several back ways to get home, and I was closer to the road it took to get to my job and my parent’s house. 

Getting more accustomed to the life on the “other side,” I noticed a lot of different things. While I didn’t live in the nicest subdivision, I lived all around the ritzy ones. These “ritzy” ones were multimillion dollar neighborhoods and they had an array of beautiful houses, pools, etc.. None of the pools were “private” pools, and they were extremely nice people. I saw more Mercedes Benz SUV’s, Porsche’s, and Lamborghini’s, and I saw more kindness than I ever did on the “north” side of town (other than when I popped my tire on the curb, but let’s not talk about that because it was a real bad day.)

My ‘new’ neighbors are drug dealers. They’re EXTREMELY loud and annoying, but I’ve left my wallet on the front seat of my car for an entire week and nobody did anything. My ‘new’ neighbors are kind people, and even though I hate living in an apartment, I’d honestly consider re-signing a lease just because I love living on the ‘south’ side of town. We’re closer to everything, there’re more places that you can walk and don’t have to feel like you’re going to get shot, and there’re less “lock your doors! High thefts ahead!” signs which is ultimately comforting. 

It’s interesting to see life from a different city while still in the same city, though, but it’s an incredible thing.

And it’s incredible to have two of the heirs of the Wal-Mart fortune as neighbors. ;)