West Green

west green road first entered my life about a year and a half ago. it was a random, meaningless name of a road i received in an email; our new address. my connection with west green began as where our house was. i was working on the other side of london, so most of my time was spent in another part of the city and getting from here to there. then not quite a year ago, all that changed. i now live and work about a five minute walk apart, here in west green. sometimes days go by and i don't leave the neighborhood. i have practically memorized the shops between here and the church. i know the drugstores, convenience stores, and bus routes. i know the easiest places to cross the streets and when the high school students mob the street on their lunch break. it can be a little scary at night and glorious in the early morning sun. the buses have horrible breaks and stop at the bus stop in front of our house 24 hours a day while the guy living behind us has a passion for bad music played really loud. i can give you a detailed list of what the shop next door sells and who is probably working given the time of day. west green is a unique mix of mostly turkish and jamaican people and culture with some somalian and african thrown in. we are the only americans i know of. it is a strange world, with bad restaurants, but it consumes my day to day life. west green has become a part of who i am, just like edmond, heritage church, and pittsburgh. it has added a new dimension to who i am and i accept that. west green is my home.