My Town – Jayla Nickens-Gill
The students recently attended the current Center Stage production of the iconic play, “Our Town.” Their subsequent Creative Writing topic: “My Town” wherein “their town” might be a city, a neighborhood, a room, or a state of mind. Here is Jayla’s thoughtful essay.
My Town
The town of Broadway, population unknown. Broadway is filled with different races–black, Hispanic, white. Most mornings it’s quiet, people walking to get to school, people getting in their cars to head to work, people returning home from the previous day of work. However, on certain days, the mornings can be crazy. Couples yelling at each other, people talking loud on the phone, people blasting music, or just screaming for absolutely no reason.
When I wake up in the morning, I get dressed, clean myself up, and head out the door. I get to school by car, get home by car, pretty much all my transportation is by car. Everyone else is either driving, or at the bus stop. Most mornings, there are at least 30 people gathered around the bus stop waiting.
My town is filled with a lot of loss. Every couple weeks someone has lost their life. It’s crazy how fast it happens in my town. It always happens right across the street. Literally walking distance. If I left my house and went across the street, I’d be standing in the middle of a crossfire.
Jays is the name of a store. Everyone goes there to get their half and half, fried rice, shrimp and broccoli, chicken box, or the famous chicken tenders and fries. It is packed inside that store, but it’s also extremely dangerous. Jays is the main spot that gets shot up, especially at night. I remember one time I was walking over there to get food. It was around 9:30 at night when gunshots rang
out. I couldn’t move my feet to run home, I just dropped to the ground and waited to hear the sound of wheels pulling off.
I know my town sounds like the worst place to live but it ain’t all that bad. Almost every week, we have a community get together. In our local park, we often hold events. Children and parents come to get their faces painted, use the Moonbounce, or play bubble soccer. Recently we had a movie screening, everyone and their mother was there. It was amazing, everyone laughing and talking, and for once nobody was arguing.
Over the summer, right before school started, we had our community “back to school” event. Stands set up everywhere, free bookbags, school supplies, and hygiene products. They even had free food, and ice cream.
My town isn’t the best place to be, but it’s my place to be. Broadway is my town.
Jayla Nickens-Gill
9/30/22