Gentrification

My neighborhood has affected my character in many ways. I have moved a lot throughout the years and the majority of my young adult hood was spent in Marin County. Marin County is known to be one of the richest Counties in the Bay Area. The majority of the population in Marin County is Caucasian and middle to upper class citizens. In Marin County there is a minimal likely hood for what is perceived as a ‘hood or ghetto” to arise. Being of African descent and coming from a background of low income where the man who is supposed to be my father worked almost twenty four hour days to provide the basic living necessities such as food, clothing and shelter for me. As a young adult, I was left with strangers and basically had to raise myself, it is no surprise that the streets became my friend and my comfort zone. In order to keep up with the main stream and gentrified standards I felt, was to take things that did not belong to me.

I was not going to tolerate being perceived as just a Haitian girl, I wanted a title that would make people remember me. I went from being Crazy Lil TK, my nick name from being wild, to simply Cedore. , I got high all day to block my emotions and to tune out from all the wrong things that I did. I started to become obsessive and intense to the point where I lost my self, due to “playing grown man games” as my elders would say. I was not prepared for the amount of heartless actions such as raping and murders I saw growing up. I was young, so I had trained my mind what was the right thing to do, even though it was excessively wrong. I worked hard at fitting into a community that today remembers my face, but does not acknowledge my existence because I decided to get out the game. I have changed and have no regrets.