Sociological Imagination
When looking back at my neighborhoods I like to believe that I experienced two very opposite ends of the spectrum when relating to the neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois. For the first five years of my life my parents, little brother, and I lived in a small lower class neighborhood in the northwest side of Chicago called Villa Park. We lived right next to the train tracks and from what I remember our neighbors were all good people, mostly blue collar white with a rising presence of Mexican-American immigrants and African-Americans. From what my parents have told me the once peaceful area became a little more restless after my brother and I were born with the occasional acts of arson, domestic violence, and muggings but it was never a dangerous neighborhood. At no point did I ever feel like I was in danger, in an area like that our neighbors were treated like family who would give you the shirt off their backs. As a kid I felt safe and at home but my parents believed we would have a better upbringing elsewhere so right before I started kindergarten we moved to Naperville, IL. Naperville is an upper middle class town considered to be a Southwest suburb of Chicago that was almost entirely college educated white and Asian families. We moved there because it had the best public school system in Illinois, its two high schools were even recently voted into the top 100 public schools in the country. This area was high class and they knew it, last year they were voted the third snobbiest town in the US. The difference between my old neighborhood and this one was like black and white. The first few years there were tough since my family were kind of the outsiders, neither of my parents went to college, both my brother and my mother had disabilities, and we lived in a small split level only a block from brand new million dollar mansions. When reflecting back I believe that I developed my values and attitude when I was back in Villa Park. Everyone there were blue collar so they would work their ass off to provide for the families and then they would come home and still find the energy to play with the kids and socialize with neighbors. However, Naperville had its fair share of wealthy families with humble beginnings such as my neighbors to the left and right. To the left was George, the Pastor/Engineer who first encouraged me to pursue a career in engineering. To the right was Bill who, along with my Dad, got me interested in the outdoors by introducing me to scouting, he even was my mentor when I was applying for my Eagle Scout. Like Bill and George Naperville offered a lot of opportunities and role models that Villa Park just couldn’t afford. Even though it was snobby and rich, and even though I was a bit of the black sheep I still learned a lot about how to succeed in life. I like to believe that my upbringing provided me with a rare view on life, a perspective from both sides of the tracks which in combination will lead me down a path towards a bright future.