The opening credits to “Weeds” is my worst nightmare. All the tiny little boxes for homes…perfectly cut lawns & synchronized sprinklers. That hell is my life. I live in a cozy, well-off little town at the bottom of a large valley. We have a huge athletic club including an indoor pool equipped with pool side bar. There are posh little boutiques and high-end restaurants, with people driving Lexus’ & Beemers filling the parking spots. I look around at the high-end fashions & high priced items and wonder how this little black sheep ended up in the Town of Gold
I was not always a little black sheep in the town of gold. I grew up on the outside looking in. I came from a modest upbringing. We lived in a small but quaint house in a tiny & historical town. I shared bedrooms with my sisters & at one point, all three sisters were sleeping in one bedroom. Down the street was a house that was literally falling down & car thefts & wild party’s were the norm. I went to an inner city elementary school where I found needles & condoms on the playground & saw kids getting beat up for their lunch money. The town of gold seemed non-existent, until my talents led me there.
At the age of 7, I started to play the piano. My mother drove me every week from our quaint little neighborhood that backed up to the Texaco gas station, to the pretty little town, nestled down in the valley, to my piano teachers house, where my lessons were. Every time we drove down the long hill to the bottom of the valley, I was always awestruck by the lights, the shiny cars, the beautiful church steeple & the nicely lit homes that were perfectly groomed. My piano teachers home was beautiful with a cobblestone walk up to the house & a baby grand inside the living room. It was a taste of the town of gold & I loved going, every week, & I continued to have piano lessons every week until I she retired when I was 14. By then though, I didn’t have to worry about my weekly visits, for we were soon going to be locals.
My parents sold the quaint little home after adding on an addition & a deck, and we soon moved into a beautiful house on an acre of land that had big bedrooms and 3 bathrooms! I grew up with 1 bathroom directly next to the kitchen, so this was a palace compared to what I was used to. The neighborhood was quiet, everyone drove nice cars & we had a garage actually connected to the house. My family soon opened up a small family business right in the middle of the town of gold, which solidified our place there. Everything was wonderful and I continued to live in the house until the age of 22. Once I move out though, I finally came to realize that everything that glitters isn’t gold.
I realized, when I finally moved out on my own, that the town of gold was not gold at all but just gold painted tin foil. When I was younger, I did not pick up on the people who lived in the town…I was blinded by the bright shine of gold. All I noticed was the nice cars and big houses. I did not take in who the people were who lived in these houses and drove those cars. Now that I am older, I sometimes think this town in rotting from the inside out. Yes, back at the smaller house and less fortune neighborhood I used to live in, there were no Lexus’ or BMW’s and the nicest house in the whole neighborhood was owned by a 95-year-old man, but everyone in that neighborhood knew each other…helped each other…sometimes even counted on each other. In the town of gold though, everyone hides behind their perfectly groomed shrubs lining their properties and the only interaction that most of the people have with each other is at the huge athletic center or at neighborhood Due Meetings. If you aren’t on the inside…you don’t even exist on the outside. If you aren’t in the loop…might as well stop racing. This town is cut throat and everyone wants theirs.
And of course, me being the black sheep of my family, I have to continue to be the Black Sheep of the Town of Gold. I refuse to buy into the fact that having a huge 4 bedroom house is the way to happiness. I refuse to believe that working 14 hour days just to afford all of the materialistic things in the world while your family falls apart is the way to go. I refuse to drive a Benz just to show that I am straight up pimpin. I would rather show how rich my soul is, instead of chasing the riches of the Town of Gold.
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