I’ve gone to Saint Lucy church ever since I was born. There isn’t any other church where I feel more comfortable than in Saint Lucy. More so now that I moved and have to walk for about 15-20 minutes to get there every Sunday. Even though there is another church that is, at most, 5 minutes away, my family still makes the effort, gladly, to walk to Saint Lucy church. Saint Lucy has a very diverse community because of the different services in language they have. There are primarily Spanish, English, and Italian masses, but they also have Albanian masses. When a big religious event takes place, it is done in Spanish, English, and Italian. I once went to Holy hour after Sunday mass, where the rosary was being prayed in the three main languages. In which I ended up learning how to pray the Hail Mary in Italian by the end of that service.
Another reason why I still hold my old church as part of my community is because the Polish priest is still very young and is very active in the community to bring the youth back into religion. Since the first day he came to our church, he had said that his priority was to bring back the youth, the future of the church. He doesn't make himself an outsider despite cultural differences from the predominantly hispanic community. If anything, he has made himself part of my family personally. He frequents my house along with other seminarians to eat dinner and its amazing how thought filled these people are. It’s been a great experience to have the opportunity to talk with them. The Polish priest goes out of his way to help educate ourselves by buying us books and talking to us. I have gotten the privilege to attend a Latin mass through him. He like to take teenagers down to Connecticut to attend these amazing masses. He created an all boys group, mostly if not all are altar servers, to help them learn about religious and political issues that should concern them. He also brought about this group to pose the question that is not usually asked, Have they thought of giving their lives to Priesthood? This may seem crazy to some boys, just the thought frightens them. But I believe it is because many of us weren't raised with that as an option put out there by our families. The ‘norm’ in society is to grow up, get married, and have children. No one ever poses the question of consecrated life.
Something else that has come from his arrival is the bringing back of the all girls group called the Daughters of Mary. This group as well as the boys group is very diverse. These girls have been intrigued by the bringing back of the tradition of veil wearing during mass. Never since I have been at my church have I seen this. I was one of these girls when I was my little sisters age, 11, and I never knew about veil wearing at mass. Now all the women in my family wear these veils and we see this as normal. It was a challenge at first because my family and my cousins family were the first to step foot in our church with veils during mass. I felt so awkward doing this the first month but I don't even notice myself standing out anymore. I feel comfortable.
Another reason why I still hold my old church as part of my community is because the Polish priest is still very young and is very active in the community to bring the youth back into religion. Since the first day he came to our church, he had said that his priority was to bring back the youth, the future of the church. He doesn't make himself an outsider despite cultural differences from the predominantly hispanic community. If anything, he has made himself part of my family personally. He frequents my house along with other seminarians to eat dinner and its amazing how thought filled these people are. It’s been a great experience to have the opportunity to talk with them. The Polish priest goes out of his way to help educate ourselves by buying us books and talking to us. I have gotten the privilege to attend a Latin mass through him. He like to take teenagers down to Connecticut to attend these amazing masses. He created an all boys group, mostly if not all are altar servers, to help them learn about religious and political issues that should concern them. He also brought about this group to pose the question that is not usually asked, Have they thought of giving their lives to Priesthood? This may seem crazy to some boys, just the thought frightens them. But I believe it is because many of us weren't raised with that as an option put out there by our families. The ‘norm’ in society is to grow up, get married, and have children. No one ever poses the question of consecrated life.
Something else that has come from his arrival is the bringing back of the all girls group called the Daughters of Mary. This group as well as the boys group is very diverse. These girls have been intrigued by the bringing back of the tradition of veil wearing during mass. Never since I have been at my church have I seen this. I was one of these girls when I was my little sisters age, 11, and I never knew about veil wearing at mass. Now all the women in my family wear these veils and we see this as normal. It was a challenge at first because my family and my cousins family were the first to step foot in our church with veils during mass. I felt so awkward doing this the first month but I don't even notice myself standing out anymore. I feel comfortable.
here are three barber shops on the same block, almost next to each other. There are two barber shops that are owned by Black men and the other one is owned by a Hispanic man. Two of the barber shops are usually frequented by black people. You would never catch a person from another ethnicity in there. Everybody else would go to the barber shop that is owned by the Hispanic man. I’ve never seen more than one customer in that store at the same time. If I was a boy, I would not feel comfortable going into the stores that are typically full of Black men.
I usually go to Magenta park. This park is just one of the parks that is connected to the overall park along Bronx Park East. I really like to go here because not a lot of people come here. I also like to come here because it is a very diverse park and it doesn’t seem to be dominated by one group of people only. There is a open field here where my family and friends go to play soccer or volleyball. There are a lot of things that can be done here like biking and skate. Going further up, you will find an actual soccer field where a game is always going on between hispanics and blacks. Right next to that, there is a skating park where a lot of youngsters go to hang out and actually skate on the ramps. There reason I like to go to this park the most is because I feel comfortable here. I don’t have to worry about people looking at me funny because the people that frequent this place have not seen me here before. I think it’s like this because this park in particular is so big and spacious. There is a spot and place for everyone. The other two parks are smaller. The park that is one block away from me is the smallest amongst the parks that I’m near. What makes this park special is that it has swings. There is also a basketball court here. I don’t really like going to this park because the people that go there make it very uncomfortable for me. I’ve had some weird experiences here. People go to the basketball court to do other things besides play the game that is meant to be played. That’s when I sort of feel forced to leave the park. I want to enjoy the park as well but because of certain people, I can’t. It’s a public space yet I can’t use it happily.
All of these storefront churches are denominations of Christianity and are abnormally close to each other. The two top pictures of the storefront churches would be next to each other if it wasn’t for a bar that comes between them. These two churches are in the corner of the street and in the next street there is another street. This church, on the right, is on the middle of that block. Moving on to the next block, there is another church close to corner of the street. The Pentecostal churches are half a block away from each other. I’ve never been to one of these churches but from the outside, I don’t see much diversity.
This is my dog that we got a few weeks after we moved into my new home. The only reason we got him was because we had the actual space to have a pet. In the beginning I didn’t feel comfortable having him in my house. I grew to love this tiny creature and accept him. He makes me feel safe and comfortable in my home because he frequently looks out our living room window and barks at strangers. He could save our lives one day, I truly believe that. He could warn us if anything seems to be going on. He makes me feel safe because I don’t feel comfortable in my community and him being there, always alert, is calming. He won’t let any stranger get by if he does not know them or if we don’t reassure him that it’s ok. He is our gatekeeper.