My Appreciation of Change

My Appreciation of Change

 

The communities we grow up in tend to define us as the people we will attempt to be as we go through life.  These communities are within our family, friends and our cities/towns.  We are raised with different values based on the communities we are a part of, and appreciate different things based upon those same ideals.  It is what makes us unique, and what brings us together.  We do not necessarily have control over where we are raised, but have the opportunity to decide where we will live as we raise our own children, or gain experience from life.  I moved to my small town of 5,000 people in Preston, CT when I was 11.  I moved from Brick, NJ, growing up on the beach and loving every second of it, immediately feeling trapped in a town that had one stoplight, one gas station, a little red schoolhouse, and I was about 30 minutes from the beach.  It was a reality check to see farmers actually milking cows and understanding the hard work that was necessary to make the farms that help guide the country actually work.  Then 7 years later, I was led to the opportunity to change me geographical location again.  Initially I was drawn to big cities, especially several schools in Boston, but could not see myself living there, loved to visit, but not live.  This led to me to schools outside of big cities, while still being close to home, leading me to Sacred Heart University.  It resided in a nice town of Fairfield that had a great reputation on my side of the state, and I expected it to be beautiful.  I once again experienced a reality check-- I realized I was only half a mile from the biggest city in CT, and one of the most struggling ones as well.  I knew of Bridgeport, as it is often on the news for violence and people trying to find a way, but did not realize its proximity to where I would be going for the next four years.  It was a culture shock visually, buildings upon buildings lining the run down streets, with some so deteriorated they no longer had roofs, or had suffered a fire and there was no motivation to rebuild or knock down what was left.  At home, the community gathered immediately to help a family who lost their home, remembering their dog’s lives and raising money to build a new home.  I had obviously seen these things before traveling-- but now I felt connected, it was now a piece of my community.

             Home for me begins when I exit the highway, turn right and make my way toward town, down a wide country road, welcomed by a ‘Welcome to Preston est. 1612’ sign, reminding me I am ‘almost’ home.  “Almost’ home meant I was two left turns, a right turn down my driveway, and approximately 6 miles from my front door!  Timing this route could nearly be impossible, at times I might find myself behind a tractor, or in a line of vehicles with out of state license plates heading toward one of the casino’s that lie just outside of my town, or just enjoying the drive with my windows down and the aroma of ‘cow manure’ --- if you can consider it an aroma.  Preston has a population of about 5000, but every day there are many people just traveling through on the main road to get to the casino.  The two main intersection roads in town meet at the firehouse, leading you to the center of town.  There is one gas station, a strip of stores, a convenience store, a bank, and a feed and grain store.  Right next to this is the elementary school, which is soon to be the K-8 school for Preston.  Behind the elementary school is the bus depot, and the biggest farm in Preston directly to the left of that!  Everything is close, but far at the same time.  We are surrounded by larger towns with big grocery stores, but it takes about 20 minutes to get there

          Now, as a Nursing major I find myself traveling daily to Cambridge Campus, but driving their every day still allows me to have more gas at the end of the week than I ever would at the end of the week at home.  Preston does not have their own high school, neither do seven other towns around us, so everyone has the option to choose where they go.  Most choose to go to NFA, Norwich Free Academy.  This was about 17 miles from my house.  I enjoy being so close to things now.  Being able to drive a couple miles down the road to the grocery store is a nice change.  I have become much more comfortable with Bridgeport now that I have been here for a couple years, but at first, it was nerve wrecking, simply because it was not my community or my culture.  This scene is much different from what I am used to.  As I explored Bridgeport for this project for instance, I experienced interesting things.  First, the real hidden beauty in Bridgeport.  The architecture in some areas is amazing, the views of Long Island Sound from some of the parks, but the parks are run down with graffiti and bars barring people from getting in or vandalizing the area, more than what has already been done.

          Down the road is a sort of sectionalized housing, with rows of buildings the same color and the feeling of despair throughout the community.  That was the most shocking -- it feels like a struggling place.  Feeling this makes me wonder how it must be to live here, yet do they know this is a struggling life?  The people of these communities are born into these situations, and do not know any different.  Similarly, some have or feel they have no chance to escape the situation they are living in, while others simply have no hope.  

              This is so very different for me.  I wonder why this happens and then reflect on the fact that there are over 6,500 people unemployed in Bridgeport, and that is as of 2000.  There are approximately 33,000 families, 7549 of which have both parents working, and a median income of 39,571.  The median income of Fairfield County is over 70,000.  There is money here, but not in the places, that needs it most.

     Another image that resounds within me is that of this homeless man.  I did not want to be too creepy and try to get a better picture, but he was eating his soup or whatever it was, so slowly and carefully.  Almost as if, he just never wanted it to end.  Standing outside the liquor store, with clothes that look like they have not ever been washed, I wonder what his story is.  By me, in Norwich you might find one or two homeless people, living under the bridge.  Here it seems they are a normality, society doesn’t care they are there, and they don’t care if they are seen because they have no voice left and have nothing else to lose.  He had a couple backpacks in a shopping cart on the other side of the door and he would walk back and forth holding his soup and pause – I wonder what he thinks, how he goes on every day.  

          As I have begun to pick apart Bridgeport and Preston visually. I thought it was important to bring out some of the statistics that seperate them even further. For instance the population of Bridgeport is 137,298 , whereas Preston is a mere 4,995 strong! This obviously contributes to the amount of families that exist, the median incomes, unemployment rates, and the amount of people in the workforce in general.

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This is the Preston Trading Post.  It was actually a trading post for many years when
Preston was first established.  Today it has become sort of the local furniture store,
However, items are ordered through catalogs.  It is also the wood furnace place, the
odds and ends store as well with different trinkets.  This is also the beginning of the
road my house is on!  The key landmark guiding all who visit that they are on the
right path:)

The amount of people in Bridgeport that are unemployed, 6,682, exceeds the amount of people that live in my town, with those unemployed in my town equaling 85. 
It is very common in Preston that one of the parents stays home, or has a part time job; with increasing amounts of both parents working over the years, yet the number of families with both parents in the workforce is approximately 145 out of 1,358 families and 1,286 people not in the workforce at all.  In Bridgeport, this number is much more dramatic with 7,549 families having both parents in the workforce, out of 33,042 families, and a hugely more significant number of 40,409 people not in the workforce at all. 
               The piece that completes the puzzle in a sense of understanding why the quality of life is so different is that the median family income in Bridgeport is 39,571, a number that is 48,000 dollars less than the median family income in Fairfield County (77,690).  In Preston, the median family income is actually slightly higher than the New London County median salary of 59,857, at 62,554.
In Preston, there are many entrepreneurs, but we also have large companies around that sort of fuel the economy.  Farms are not as big of moneymakers as they used to be, but we are lucky enough to have Electric Boat, 2 casinos, Pfizer and many other companies that provide stimulation for the area.  We are close to major towns, but most of Southeastern, CT is made up of quiet farm towns with people that go about their day as they need-- to provide for their families, there is not much of a distraction from those ideals.

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Almost every teenage girl starts her first job here!  It is Buttonwood Ice-cream
Farm.  People come here from hours away, especially in the summer when
they have the Sunflower for Wishes; they grow thousands of sunflowers, and then
sell them, as well as have hayrides and raise all the money for Make A Wish.
They raise incredible amounts of money, and everyone is drawn to the amazing
homemade ice cream they make, right in the back, from the milk of their own
cows.  I myself had the opportunity to help when I worked here. 
It is the best ice cream around, and on a nice summer day, each of the 7 windows
will have lines all the way down to this stonewall in front, all day!  Delicious!

        Bridgeport is in a much different area, where they have a huge amount of people in a bigger city, but an area that does not necessarily have huge corporations that can help out the little man. Fairfield county is very wealthy, but much of that wealth is divulged from jobs and professions that stem from New York City, wall street, or high profile jobs that require years of education. For the kids in the Bridgeport, as a result of their parents working hard to provide for their families, are not always given these opportunities because they are forced by natural law to begin working at a young age to help the family with bills. I never had to experence these things, though I had a job at 16, I was able to keep my money for myself or to pay for myself to do things. 
Though I could never picture myself living in Bridgeport, I am sure that a Bridgeport teen could never imagine themselves in my situation either. These stats really make me think I am fortunate to be where I am from, and for my parents to have been as succesful as they were in establishing their own business, but I cannot say that a Bridgeport teen would want to change their life because perhaps they appreciate all that they have, or could not picture their life different from living close to everything they need.
         This is when I am grateful for going to school close to an area such as this; these images remind you of the individuals in this world who have nothing and still get up every morning.  I hear people complaining that they cannot get the newest BMW or the nicest electronic, when people do not have clothes to wear.  My small town of Preston sometimes leads me to feel sheltered, though I volunteered at the soup kitchen in my youth and my parents provided thanksgiving dinners to the needy throughout my life, I have never experienced poverty to this level.  When a family’s home is lost, the entire community rallies to build a new home and provide the family with shelter and clothes to wear, here I homes that are torn apart daily, and instead of doing something, it seems to be more of an advertising opportunity.  They put up large signs to get the attention of others that may have suffered the same fate, and this is right off Main Street near the hospital, not even deep into Bridgeport.  This is a very different situation for me to see -- experience that my new ‘community’ has provided, helping me appreciate more the community, I have at home.  My service learning in a local school allowed me to understand and appreciate this culture even more.  When I was in elementary school we were lucky enough to have a new school built, but it was not necessary to have a guard at our entrance, or security guards in the hallway.  In Bridgeport it is.  Not all of the children experience the same youths, but many are forced to grow up very quickly or do not have the opportunity to experience a full youth as I did.  Some of these children have barely been out of Bridgeport, and I have been able to travel to countries near and far.  How is this fair?              

              The point of this essay of course is not to compare financial situations; I am just pondering the point behind it all.  I myself will never have the total and complete answer, for some it is if you work hard, you deserve it and if you do not you will never get it, for others it is our system’s fault that the cities are the way they are and the suburbs are so successful.  For me the answer has simply become -- play a role in their life.  Volunteer when you can and just show someone similar to the homeless man on the street that there is hope, and there is someone that cares for him.  I have found that for myself, my small town background of everyone working at the same ice cream shop, and graduating middle school with 48 kids in my class, has led me to understand that though I am lucky, I cannot be ungrateful.  Our community at Sacred Heart University, built upon the foundation of giving back has driven me to do so.  I am grateful for all of it, my small town back roads and our one cop town, to driving down Main Street in Bridgeport full of different religions and cultures.  It should be appreciated.  Because no matter how different the areas we come from are, we all have the same goal and desire in life, to be happy and healthy, and it is our responsibility to give to those who cannot find it themselves, or feel there is no hope left at all.