A thing I wish I could change

If I could change one thing about my past, it would most likely be my time spent in Georgia. I moved to Georgia from Ohio in the summer before my 2nd grade year. When we arrived there we had no money, so we could only afford a small, old, worn down trailer in a disgusting trailer park. This did not bother me at 6 years of age, I never quite understood until years later. The thing that did bother me while living there was all the violence, we lived in a neighborhood with many gangs and street violence. There were rival gangs and you had to be carful who you talked to and who you befriended, at least that was what my mom told me at the time. I always had to be carful. I was grateful enough to make one friend though, he lived right down the street from me. His name was Eric. Second grade there was hard, many of the kids there did not like me, because I looked and acted different. I was paler, had a northern accent and was extremely shy, so many of them chose to be either mean or ignore me all together. This was only a minor problem for me, as I had Eric and my cousins that lived out there. Living there was very hard, my dad had to stay in Ohio to try and help us financially, because as I said, we were very poor. We could barley afford our home or anything else for that matter. Despite the rough conditions my mom insisted we try and make it work. Things seemed to be going okay for awhile, but then there was a drug bust in the house next door to mine. The man in the house, in a fit of panic, almost hurt my grandmother to try and get the cops to go away. This thankfully did not happen, as my grandmother got away. This pushed my mom to want to finally leave, but as if that was not enough Erics father commited suicide two days later. He did it on his front porch in broad daylight. This was jarring to my mom, so she packed us up quickly and left back to Ohio. I can honestly say I would not be who I am today if it had not been for living in Georgia, I do not think any of my family would. That experience effected us all. Living on the edge of being homeless makes you appreciate things more, you realize how important the little things are. We all value our things so much, and we never tease or make fun of someone for being different. We only lived there for a year but it effected us all in such a drastic way, it is unforgettable.