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”).
My community is a blessing and is so nice. When you are down, someone will help you up. I’ve lived here my whole life and my children want me to move to WPB or Wellington but I don’t want to. It’s so nice growing up here. My children came last week and took me out to eat for my birthday. My sister lives nearby and we see each other often.
When I young living in my neighborhood was different from today. We couldn’t do the things that the young people do today. The white kids had more privilege then us blacks we couldn’t even go to the beach.
Growing up in palm beach was terrible my mother didn’t like it one bit ! Palm beach was all sorts of bars young teens having babies,gang bangers shooting every night , Palm beach was horrible even for the children.
Watching my parents work so hard to provide us with the most they could. Unfortunately we did not have a lot like others. My parents didn’t make enough income to provide us with our wants, but we were just thankful that my parents were able to provide us with a home, food and clothing. For school I remember being bullied because I wore a lot of hand me downs and not being vocal or tough. Also, we did not have transportation for school so I would walk and get to school sweaty. Yes, we struggled but our parents taught us the best moral which was to finish school and keep thriving no matter what obstacles came my way. In our community we don’t have a lot of resources that really helped the Hispanic community because we are unheard.I remember this scholarship opportunity called “Pops”, which pretty much was a program that helped you get ready for the real world and they helped you get a job in your preferred field. I applied and was selected for a interview.Turns out they had already chosen the candidates for the scholarship and just gave me a interview to just make it seem like they interviewed me. I later found out that they chose people who were friends or relatives of City of Pahokee and the Hispanic population was very small so it really made me feel that I was not part of the community. Depicted all odds, I was able to go to college and work in my community who really didn’t do anything physically to befit me, but my community did made me mentally stronger.