Palm Beach County residents were asked:
Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.
The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).
Living around here is pretty tough. At times you realize how people act as a community and how everything is seen. On an individual level it depends on how you look at it. All the things kind of go not so well. Growing up here i realized that this is a survival city. If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere. Living here will toughen you up or fold you. There is no in between. I wish as a community as a whole people could see the daily struggles. A few individuals ruin it for the whole. For examples we have had multiple fast food stores that couldn’t stay open simply due to the fact that some individuals that would rob them instead of working for their livelihood because that is all they knew, because there is no opportunity. And typically when people became successful they don’t want to live here anymore because someone around here might want to take what they worked for. The people at the end are trying to take care of they’re family and themselves instead of thinking of the community. The people here are kept down and not given chances. Outsiders are scared of the people from here. There is still good people though like myself who try to do good and make a difference and not fall into the trap and move on past all of the struggle. To find a better way of living where people don’t judge you because of where you are from.
My home situation was slightly better than average when compared to the typical ghetto home life.My mom didn’t always work, but she took temporary work when she could and I never went hungry.
Growing up in Boynton Beach it was tough because segregation was hectic!
one moment in my life is the time when this girl was kidnapped right and the whole community came togheter to help find her.
I learned that there’s a lot about Delray that I didn’t know, but found out that Delray has a lot of history and is broken down and built based on the history of it. I enjoy taking guest and family members around showing them historical monuments, giving the history of it, and telling them what it’s like living there. It’s amazing how many opportunities are given to people living there.
an important moment my interviwees life was. a time back about 10 years ago when she was driving down the street and then out of nowhere her car broke down now this was late at and she says that she was going to walk to a gas station to get gas and when she was walking a group of boys was walking and she was walking for a good while and noticed that they were following her so she decided to cross the street and walk on the other side and thet crossed also, then the group stsrted running after her and she began to run as fast a she could. sne says they caught up with her and started to take her stuff she had a purse and other stuff but she felt they wanted her watch. she was able to slip out and keep running she ran into a yard and banged on the window the boys all ran and she left. she was able to get her gas and safely make it back to her car.