When I was 14 or so I went on a family trip to rocky point for my moms 40th birthday. It was such an amazing experience, I went kayaking, made sandcastles, ate fish, because I hate any other type of seafood, and even saw dolphins.
Once the vacation was over and we headed back home, we were stopped at an inspection station close to the borderline. My mom tends to get nervous when this happens just because of how bad modern society is doing with the immigration situation and the struggles people face like deportation.
Once the officers finished inspecting our luggage and everyone in the car, he asked that we putt down our windows, and asked me a question.
What school do you go to?
I replied with "I go to a school in Laveen, Arizona called Betty Fairfax High School."
He obviously did not know what I was talking about, he probably thought I was making it up, but by the look of his face, he did not know where Laveen was at all. So it got me thinking that no one really knows the small city in which I grew up.
I was born in Phoenix, Arizona and we lived near the end of Phoenix and beginning of Tempe. I lived there up until I was 7 years old until we moved to a little town in the south end of Phoenix by the name of Laveen.
We moved here because we found a house with more rooms for my siblings and me, as well as my dogs and my grandma.
I started in second grade at a school called "Cheatham Elementary."
I was there up until sixth grade when they made another elementary school much closer to my house that it was walking distance.
I only stayed for a year because I did not like the environment I was in, so I begged my mom to move back. I then promoted from my former elementary school and went on to high school, where there was only two to choose from.
Here I lived some the best and worst years of my life. Living in a small town is honestly a curse and a blessing. It can be good because everyone knows each other, and the community is united.
But also it can be a bad thing because it limits your freedom from the exposure that the world and life have to offer. It makes you relentless to leave.
At the time we moved it was still really such a developing town in the suburbs, with really no movement at all.
I lived my whole life in this town and it has rapidly grown from little to nothing into having a freeway built right next to it, allowing commercial brands wanting a ticket into our community.
Laveen is such a big part of my life and I will always come back to it no matter how far I go in life.
It is home and it always will be. Sure it may have some flaws, but that does not stop me from reliving the memories of my childhood.
You know what they say, "You'll always find your way back home."
