Personal Narrative: My Ghetto Life

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“Arielle, are you all packed for the ghettos?” I was furious that we were leaving home. I knew the reason why, but that still didn’t make it fair. It was my birthday too! I contested to my Mom about leaving. “It is fine sweetie. We are just moving in with our own kind. If you think about it, we are safer that way.” I could tell Mom was unnerved about this order deep down, but she wanted to hide it so I wouldn’t be scared. That still didn’t change the fact that I was forced to leave my best friend Millie. She didn’t have to leave because she was Catholic, which just didn’t seem fair to me or her. Millie was just as much my kind as my family or community. I kept on trying to protest, even though I knew it wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I was …show more content…
We had tried to become accustomed to this new life, but never could. No one could. We would have more basic rights revoked and more privacy violated the longer we were in there. I’d look up at the sky and savor every aspect of it, from the colors to the shape of the clouds. It was comforting to me, as it was always there. They could take away our rights to travel or shorten our curfew, but they could never take away the sky and it’s myriad of colors. If there was one thing I wished they’d take away, it was school. Every aspect of it was repetitious and dull. We’d do the same math everyday and read the same book. I often found myself drawing in class, especially the sky. This would have gotten me in trouble, but the monotonous work came naturally to me. Soon, it was my birthday. The class sung lifelessly. Birthdays always left me pondering about my old life and Millie, before all of this. It was five years ago, but it seemed like it all happened within the past week. An urgent announcement by the teacher brought me back to reality. “You are to leave the school and immediately return home.” A wave of uneasiness struck the classroom, but we all obeyed the orders. I rushed home to find cattle cars lined up. I immediately had flashbacks from leaving to my old house. The sight of them still bothered me. That feeling was short lasting, however, as the thought occurred to me that maybe we would be returning! My mood quickly changed, and I sought out my parents. When I found them, they were weeping. “What’s wrong?” Their somber looks ruined my mood. “We are… going to a camp.” Everything around me seemed to freeze. I was convinced those were rumors. I wanted to ask what kind of camp, in hopes of it being something different, but it was no use. I knew what they were talking about, and I quietly packed my bags. Much like when we were leaving for the ghetto, we were awoken early and all

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