I am very fortunate to have had the childhood I had. My neighborhood was one like no other. Eighteen kids lived on my street alone. Eighteen. That’s not including the kids around the corner and a few streets over. All of us being relatively close in age. Eighteen kids that made up my neighborhood, my childhood, and a crucial part of my everyday life growing up. They gave me a lot for our many years of friendship.

Thank you for giving me some of the best days of my life. Whether it was cold and snowy or hot and humid, we were always outside and spent nearly ten hours a day together. I remember on snow days we would drink hot chocolate & switch from house to house, just playing for hours. Or those summer days when we would ring each other’s doorbell at 9 a.m. sharp and stay outside all day until the streetlights came on. We never got tired of being together or failed to come up with something to do. Being bored with each other was better than being bored alone. We never wanted to go inside. When I was out of the neighborhood, I always had the feeling of wanting to go home because I was afraid I would miss out on something.

Thank you for growing up with me. Going through the same things and being the people I could talk to. Learning to ride a bike, every birthday, all our awkward stages and phases, getting our first jobs, learning how to drive a car, supporting each other at our graduations, being accepted into college and watching each other develop into the people we truly are. We’ve been through all the milestones (thus far) in our life together.

Thank you for making me who I am and being a huge part of my life. I have learned to like a lot of things because of you all. You’ve accepted me with all my flaws and I accepted you with yours. You’ve pushed me to try new things, helped me learn a lot about life and others.

Thank you for being my go to for everything. Being able to do nothing at all and still have a good time. All I wanted to do was go outside and be with the kids in my neighborhood. Whether it was spending hours playing games, riding bikes, or just sitting on the porch watching the cars drive by, it was time well spent.

Thank you for making some of the best memories with me. Like the time we worked together and made nearly $100 on our lemonade stand. Or when we spent $10 on all different kinds of gum at Alexander’s. Thirteen years of Block Parties. When Brandon stepped in dog poop barefoot during his “I don’t need to wear shoes” phase. When we put together the first and only “Stanley Ave Newspaper.” The famous Codi and Tafari fight that no one could forget. Endless memories that even the greatest writers couldn’t even come up with.

Thank you for being my best friends and sticking together all these years. I know some of the eighteen have come and gone, but a majority of us still remain close. I have made friends that I know I will have for a lifetime. We know everything and anything about each other, and have become like family to each other. And when the time comes when we move away from our beloved neighborhood and won’t see each other as much or even at all, remember me as well as I will remember you. For I know that we will always have one another, even if we live across the world from each other. I can only pray, that one-day when I have children they will have at least half the childhood I had thanks to my neighborhood.