Neighborhood Paper

I moved into Old Irving Park when I was four. Being a little kid, I had no idea what was actually going on and probably asked a lot of annoying questions. I thought the move was exciting while my parents stressed over every little detail. I didn't understand the nightmare of packing and unpacking until helping my best friend from school move into Old Irving Park this summer. I have my newest and oldest best friend living in the same neighborhood.

On the first day of moving, my mom told me, “Pumpkin, you have to help move your boxes! These are your toys.” I pouted for a few seconds before giving in and running to the enormous truck. I saw a box of my stuffed animals and decided that was the box I could carry. As I carried the box up the stairs to my new room, I ran into a few walls due to the box blocking my vision. Setting down the box, I looked at all the wallpaper peeling off the wall and plastic sheets covering all my furniture.

“Mommy! I wanna play outside,” I shouted in an obnoxious little kid voice. “This is boring and I don’t wanna do it.”

“Fine, if you’re going to be like that,” she said, ushering me out of my room. I raced down the stairs and out the backdoor. The sun was shining so bright, it was hard to see and cicadas were buzzing all around me. There was a lilac bush in bloom and its scent was floating in the air, along with pine from the nearby tree. I noticed the tree had low, thick branches. I made my way to the tree. Lightly placing my foot on the first branch I could reach, I pulled my way up the first few branches. I got into a rhythm and before I knew it, I felt like I was 100 feet in the air.

I got my first proper view of my new neighborhood high up in the tree. There are a lot more plants in here than our last place. Next door, there was a black dog running around the yard. Across the alley was a huge hill covered in vines and saplings. Directly in front of me, there was a little girl on a swing set. She looked my age and had a cat on a leash. They have leashes for cats?

“Get down from there! You can’t go that high in a tree without an adult watching you,” my mom yelled out the door, juggling a box of picture frames. I descended from my perch with sap covered hands. As soon as I hit the bed of pine needles, my mom dragged me inside to help her unpack boxes. After unpacking for a while, my curiosity about the girl across the alley died down.

“Guess what? I found out there’s a girl a year older than you right across the alley. I told them you might come over tomorrow,” my dad said during dinner. A smile spread across my face.

“That’s so cool,” I beamed with my front tooth missing. I had ran into a wall a few days ago and it fell out. Whoops.

The next day, I got ready as fast as possible so I could go meet the girl across the alley. The idea of a friend right by me sounded super fun. We could have sleepovers and do all sorts of fun things together. We could even end up going to the same school and doing our work together. I got more and more excited as each thought flowed through my brain.

“Do you want to go meet your new neighbors?” my dad asked. I nodded and ran to the backdoor. He caught up to me and led me to their house and I saw the girl and another girl who was a bit older. That must be her sister and her parents in the doorway. I became nervous by the amount of people there. I thought, what if they like their old neighbors better?

“Hi, Buddy and Christina, this is my daughter,” my dad said, pulling me out from behind, forcing me into the light.

“Hi, my name is Melanie,” said the girl I saw on the swing set the day before. I waved at her and she smiled as she waved back. “Do you want to go play on the swings?” she asked. I nodded and we ran over to the swings, leaving our parents on the walkway. This was the beginning to a great friendship.

Today, Mel and I go to different high schools and sadly have grown apart. The years we spent together as best friends really changed my life and personality. I like to think I became a better person by spending so much time with her. Moving to this neighborhood caused me to make a great friend that I will always be connected to.