Broad Street, Providence

       Sometimes a new experience is right around the corner, literally. I never imagined that my winter break would start off by going to a place I had never been to before that was less than 10 miles from my home. I grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island and went to school in East Providence, Rhode Island. I traveled on highway 95 twice a day going through just a tip of South Providence, but never actually venturing through it until just recently.

         South Providence is not actually a real town or city in Rhode Island, it is just the southern part of Providence that runs parallel to Cranston. South Providence is like entering into another world. Stepping out of the car as a blonde girl, I was already in the minority, as this community is predominately Hispanic. It is a bit comical that I am Hispanic but still feel in the minority from my light skin, light hair, and light eyes from being Swedish, though my brother would fit right in with his darker skin, dark eyes and dark hair. This feeling of being in the minority from a place that you grew up only a few miles away is an extremely strange feeling. The signs in every window of every restaurant, pawnshop, and supermarket you pass are in Spanish and everyone here speaks Spanish, mainly as their primary language.

         Let’s just say I was shocked. I heard all about this town, even warning from my parents not to stray too far from downtown Providence, but here I found myself working right in the middle of all this action on Broad Street. As I looked out the office window, I got a glimpse of South Providence life and realized these people living not far from me lived an exceedingly different life than I did. As my internship supervisor on the way over narrated the streets:

 “This one had most murders last year”

“This one had the most drive by shootings”

“These speed bumps are put in the middle of these intersections to make it difficult to shoot while driving through them”

“These speed bumps discourage drug deals.”

“This is the elementary school where someone got shot in front of at 3 a.m. this morning.”

        All the realization that a short ride from my safe neighborhood in Cowesett, one of the safest neighborhoods in Warwick, was one the most dangerous neighborhood in Rhode Island. This experience was truly an eye-opening experience that traveling only a town over housed a place that you don’t want to be caught walking around after nightfall.