Melting Pot

I grew up in the western suburbs in the late 80's and early 90's. There were a number of asian kids, some Indian kids, and one black kid in my high school class. His name was Chip. You might saw we lacked diversity.

When we moved into our house, which is in kind of the same type of area (except NORTH), I expected that same thing. Though we're in a predominantly Jewish area now. I've met more Jewish people since moving here than I had met in my entire life (and yes, we had at least two Jewish kids in my high school class. They dated.) Our school district even has the Jewish holidays off.

I was surprised (and pleased), though, to see a few black children walking home from school. A woman down the street is from Bulgaria. I just met a neighbor who is married to a Guatamalen (she did Peace Corps work there, hello, makes me feel like a slacker!).

People talk about staying in the city because of the cultural value of it, but there are certain parts of the city that are just as cultural isolated as the suburb I grew up in. I really didn't expect to find this diversity here, and it just makes me like this place yet a little more.