Place Where You Live:

Panorama, California

Panorama shopping center sign

Many people say that the place I live is a very dangerous area and they are not wrong. Hostage situations, car explosions, drug dealing and more have been part of my life. I was born in Panorama to a poor couple who were living on the floor in a one bedroom apartment, and it wasn’t until I was five that I moved to the city next to us, North Hills. Not because it was a safe area — Panorama wasn’t necessarily safe either — but because it was a cheap area where my family could finally afford a townhouse apartment. Hearing yelling from outside the window and seeing the room light up bright with helicopters searchlights made my first night there terrifying but little did I know then that would become a normal thing for me. As I grew older my younger brother and I would often go out to the Panorama Regency Plant theaters with some of my friends. We didn’t have enough money to see movies all the time but just hanging around outside the theater and looking at the trailers was enough for us. Next to the theaters was a the Panorama Mall where we quickly began to annoy the employees because we had the most fun fooling around and not buying anything from the stores. At the time we didn’t care because that was a break from everything around us. After every day came nightfall and we knew we had to go home before dark or else things would get nasty. The walk home was never sad we would walk together past the fire and smoke, past the broken streets and past all the people who hurt others. We dropped people off one by one till me and my brother were the only ones left to reach home. Eventually as we got older the same process repeated itself one last time, one by one we got accepted into universities and colleges and one by one we began to move out. Till I was the only one left, I moved again to place where I can no longer sleep because it is too quiet. Camarillo isn’t my home, it will never be because my home because despite all the chaos is back in Panorama.