Whispers of the Avenue
Whispers of the Avenue: Everyday Life In My Neighborhood was written by the students of 826LA’s Write On! After School writing program in Spring 2025
Sometimes, we go on about our daily life, stuck in a routine without ever knowing the names of the people who cross our paths. Living in a fast-paced city can prevent us from building relationships with our neighbors. Busy with our own lives, we can miss the beauty of connection. The theme of neighborhoods is a quick reminder to stop and smell the roses. Become spatially aware of everything and everyone. A simple hello to the cashier from the corner store, the bus driver, or the robot couple across the street can make anyone's day.
Living in a big city can also be scary. We’re taught from a young age that you should mind your business and not talk to strangers. TV series, social media, and the news have also scared us into staying in our bubbles. Not to say we shouldn’t be cautious, but being wary all the time limits us. What I came to realize was that life is more exciting when you have other people to share it with. To be happy, you must seek community. Many of the people we can build community with are the people we live near. It's easier when we see people consistently in places like school, work, or at home. When we no longer have a space where we feel welcome or comfortable, we rely on third spaces to welcome us with open arms. A place where we can interact and build community.
As you get older, you have to seek these places. Discovering our neighborhood becomes our duty. We need people to share joy and purpose. People who are friends, family, and even strangers give us a sense of belonging, help us explore new ideas, and learn about different cultures and points of view.
This is what the students of Write On! have been tasked to do. Discover and dive into a world they are already familiar with: their neighborhoods. Whether it was a poem, their day to day, or a fictional story, they had to use all their senses to describe how they see their home and how it made them feel. From sunny California and its palm trees to monster neighbors.
This task wasn't always easy. For some students, their neighborhoods were simply places they passed through. Driven from one place to another, they rarely had a reason to look closely. This assignment challenged them to slow down, to notice, to see the world they move through every day. The challenge was for them to truly observe who and what they see. Some students took this theme and thought about the importance of community: the correlation between people and the planet. When we connect with our neighbors, we can truly look at our world and how we can all work together. These stories show how easy it is to connect. A smile, a conversation, or just paying attention can bring a neighborhood to life. Through these students’ eyes, we see not just places but the people who make them feel at home.