Home. Home doesn’t necessarily have to be a place where one lives permanently such as your, apartment, house, or any type of building. Home is a place where you feel warm, safe, love, and comfort all in one. Home can also be a safe place. Sometimes home can also be just a simple thought or a certain emotional feeling.

I was born and raised in Fall River MA. But to be specific I was born at the Charlton Memorial Hospital. I have lived here in Fall River my whole 18yrs of life. Fall River has about 88,857 people living in the city. This place has taught me so much life lessons and facts about the city itself. Fall River is home to me. Growing up in Fall River I have made so many friends, close relationships and lots of memorable memories of events that has all happened here.

The city has so many special events that go on during certain special occasions. My personal favorite event is on the 4th of July or independence day I should say, when for many years Fall River has a huge event that always goes on down at the Battleship. I have been going to this event ever since I was around 10 or 11yrs old for as long as I remembered and have been going every year after that. This event has been in my childhood for quite awhile. They open up a carnival like event for all of the residents who live there and for everyone to enjoy the special holiday and celebrate it together. I love the feeling of knowing everyone is having a great time. As you walk down to the Battleship the first thing you see is the tall Ferris wheel that is shaped as a big huge circle which is in the center of the parking lot with many shining bright lights on it. You could already feel the excitement and a small rush go through your body.  As you go further down you start to see everything else. Everything else such as all of the mini games and all of the other types of rides. My personal favorite ride was always the big huge pink slides. Those were always my favorite because that was the first time i have ever went down the slide with my father. The importance of that is because my father and I have a really tight bond and close relationship. When the clock hits around 9:30-10:00pm that’s when you hear the fireworks start. You would know when you hear a loud BOOM! and BANG! about 3 times in a row all shooting up in the sky.  This event is such a home warm feeling because I know everyone is having a great time and you are surrounded by many positive people and the people you love if you are showing up with family. Having that home like warm feeling is also a happy feeling. Coming to the 4th of July carnival makes me feel so much at home because I’m comfortable and familiar with the environment around me. The event is a well known place to me.

Driving on bumpy roads swerving left to right dodging many huge potholes is when you know you are in Fall River. The streets of Fall River are mostly very curved like. The reason why the pot holes feel like and are like home to me is because I go through and dodge them every single time I leave and come back to my house. the pot holes on the street last up to about a mile an a half from and to my house. Once I seem to notice I am driving on a really long bumpy road, I know I am close to home. My actual house to be specific.

I am also pretty sure most or all of the streets have light poles and they are at least about 100ft away from one another. In certain areas the street lights come on at about sunset or depending on the season around 8 o’clock because of day light savings. More importantly though, Fall River has many one way streets. Sometimes they even come one after the other and the worst part is that at the end of a one way street you find yourself having to go all the way back around because the next one way street goes the opposite way. Yes, such a hassel is that’s what you are thinking.

Sunset Hill is the place where I have lived throughout most of my life which was for 14yrs. Sunset Hill is where I met all of the friends I have now and also where I made most of my childhood memories. From sleeping over friends or family’s house to walking to the closest corner store to playing outside at the playground almost everyday. There was also this small community day care my mom had signed me up for to go to after school. The teachers there were very nice. It was a little like school but not necessarily. When I moved from this place it felt odd at first because I have never lived anywhere else besides Sunset Hill. My sister currently lives here now and every time I walk into her house it gives me so many memories and flashbacks of back then. The rooms and downstairs where modeled the same exact way which was the crazy part. I can truly say that this is my safe place. As I come back and drive into the parking lot I can already feel the love, warmth, and comfort soothing into me.

There are many definitions and different opinions on what a “good feeling is”.  A good feeling can either be something so simple as getting paid on a Friday after a long week of work or it could also be a good feeling when you see that your gas tank in your car is all the way at full. But my good feeling might be a little different than you would think. As I drive back to Fall River from a different city or state and I pass by one of those signs that say “Welcome to Massachusetts” or even better  “Entering Fall River” I say to myself in my head, “yes, it feels great to be home!”

Non stopping sirens, horns, beeping, loud cars, and more chaos is all you hear when you enter the city of Fall River. Fall River is a small and for the most part, a very wild city to live in. While on the streets of Fall River you will see nay types of different buildings depending on what part of the city you are on. Fall River has the north side, east side, and south side. The city doesn’t technically have a side where people call it the west side. The north side is where all of the “high class” and wealthy people live. As you go up and down the north side streets you would see very rich and expensive houses. The houses are tall, mostly white and have long huge drive ways filled with nice luxury cars. You would also see many law offices and lots of owned businesses such as a simple retail store or a restaurant. On the south side you would see many small stores all close by each other, a huge court house standing tall in the middle of the city right next to city hall. Also on the south side you would see many parks in the community for kids to play at weather it would be for the playground, or for the available courts or fields that are there. Such as, a tennis court, a basketball court, or even a baseball field. Fall River also has a nice boardwalk where it is the home of the great big Battleship. People usually go there on their free time to enjoy the view or even to just clear their minds. The amount of pot holes in Fall River is off the charts. You will find yourself swerving left and right and sometimes even driving on the opposite side of the road just to dodge pot holes. The south side of Fall River is where I live. I live right up the block from St. Anne’s hospital. you could only imagine the number of times I hear loud sirens going up and down the street a day. It gets very wild. St. Anne’s is on one of the main streets in Fall River which is South Main St. So year you could say the traffic gets hectic at times. As crazy as this city could get, I do not regret being born and raised in my hometown.

As a writer I have written many stories through my whole education. From short paragraphs, short stories, open responses, and essays. Writing is one of my weakest skills in school. I usually tend to write about a topic then as the story goes on I tend to get off track and go a whole different way other than keeping is based on one topic. Writing also has never been one of my favorite topics or subjects to do. During elementary school I remember having to write a lot about personal events such as what I liked to do, what I did over vacation, etc. One paper I actually remember writing was from 4th grade when I had to write about my favorite thing I liked to do on my free time. That story was about fishing. I remember writing a lot of detail in that story but my teacher had told me that I still needed a lot of work on it. Even until this day I’m not good at writing. I find it very difficult to talk about something and write about it for so long using a lot of information and descriptive detail and information. During this semester I would like to work on developing lots of reading and writing skills that I could use on my future papers. I would also like to learn the correct why and format to write an essay or even a simple open response making it sound as good, clear and accurate while also staying on topic.