Despite discussion of where I’m from, I don’t think it can be contested that my hometown in Dallas. That is, I was born there and lived there consistently for 15 years. I have many mixed feeling about it and Texas in general. I guess my thing will be less of an advertisement and more of a review. An honest, non sponsored review. So hold tight to your cowboy boots and vineyard vines oversized tee, y’all.
**i will update this very soon but sorry I haven’t been in the most productive mood lately :( in the meantime I don’t want any demerits ! **
Ok, I'm back a week later to flesh this post out a bit more.
The state is Texas, the city is Dallas, the neighborhood is Lake Highlands. Lake Highlands is not exactly suburbs but I wouldn't call it the city either. I guess Dallas is somewhat spread out, so there's a lot to it I don't even know. But basically the neighborhood I grew up in had some suburban aspects and was 30 minutes from the downtown area. But I've been to the actual suburbs (like not 1950s Levittown level but super uniform and boringly pristine) and I would definitely not say it's like that.
I think I had no idea about some of the neighborhood politics growing up, so now that I'm older and also very removed from it all, it's interesting to look in. According to the 2010 census, the city is 50% white, 25% black, 2.9% asian, 0.5% native american, 0.1% pacific islander and 42.4% hispanic/latino. But the neighborhood, and especially my elementary school felt very white. I was interested to find out later that actually my high school had about an even split of black, white, and hispanic students. To me, it was super white because of how we got split from early on into different academic tracks. And there were very few Asians around me (actually at Smith and even Idaho I felt more affinity based community). Idk if all this is relevant, but I always think it's interesting to know the makeup of where someone grew up.
In terms of politics, all the big cities in Texas are more Democratic. But considering the rest of the state is so red, it's not surprising that there are still plenty of Republicans.
Texas has an interesting history, and some of its residents are very proud of this. It's like you have the nationalism of the US but on top of this there's a strong loyalty to the state. We always said the Pledge of Allegiance but right after we'd have to say the Texas pledge. At camp you'd always sing the Texas state songs. It's hard to escape (especially when you tie it to football and state school pride). This probably has to do with factors like Texas being its own country at one point... but in any case, I don't buy into it.
I had a good perception of my neighborhood until maybe high school. Now I just don't care so much.... I know the people who got on my nerves and were really racist will just keep being that way and will live their lives likely how their parents did. But I'm not salty :). Despite it all, there are still some people I'd go back for. Like I said earlier, it's complicated.
I don't really think that was a review or an advertisement but just some thoughts. My mom offered the chance for us to go back for the summer. Usually in the summers since moving to Idaho, we stay at my grandparent's place (in Dallas). But since everything is closed and we're supposed to social distance from friends anyways, we (my siblings and I) didn't really see any reason to. I never thought it would be so much more appealing to stay in Idaho, where we can bake and live more freely.
Ok second update! I just read Emma's post about her neighborhood and it was so cute and helpful and mine feels very negative now. To be fair though, I think it's just a representation of my mixed feelings. But to just add on, here are some things I liked about Lake Highlands:
-the SKATING rink. This place was iconic. Skate races and limbo where kids would go all the way down in middle splits while on skates and the obligatory round of playing Ghost Busters with disco lights and a fog machine.
-Sonic (me and my friend were super into skating so I really wanted to work here, but that somehow never happened)
-White Rock Lake
-North Park Mall- this mall is super fancy and has a lot of fancy sculptures and no mall I've been to since has compared to it I'll have to admit (except maybe Galeries Lafayette in Paris)
Also, since Emma mentioned it, the only famous person I know to have come from the neighborhood is Annie Clark aka St Vincent. She went to my high school which is neat.
This was a interesting, I feel like Texas is weird like that tho. Like it seems good in some essence like the weather and the sense of “ camaraderie” when it comes down to Texas vs America but in other regards it seems to be not so good such as in terms of racism ://. Nonetheless, Dallas seems like a cool place and I wanna go one day :D
@emma yeahhh I noticed that about Asian YouTubers too! Everyone seems to be from Texas or California (Like Conan grey) I think just cause Texas is so big that gives more opportunity but it’s also true that there are some really big Asian communities in the suburbs near Dallas (like I went to a korean church as a kid and my friends were all in Plano/Allen which are maybe 45 away from where i was) As a whole though in the state yeah the stats are low :/ but I’d guess most of the Asians would be in the big city areas in any case! And yeah I totally know what ya mean 🙃 my friends would say stuff like “I…
@erin yeahhh vineyard vines shirts were big amongst the prepster type girls and boys. The uniform was basically a big vv(or this other brand tylers) shirt and Nike’s and Jesus sandals.... basically summer vsco girl honesty Oh band was like my whole high school experience practically (no matter how I longed to separate myself from the band kids). And yes! I did it all 4 years. In Dallas (first 2 years) it was a lot more intense and fun to me. The all state and everything is really competitive (I never got it 😰) and the marching competitions were always big productions! By the time I moved to Idaho I was really into percussion so didn’t want to stop but…
Who’s this person you speak of? Also sonic is good, i like how it’s open late and how you can get 1/2 off shakes! Me and my friend’s would blast music and drink shakes...good times
This might sound a little strange but I've always been curious about Texas' asian population because a lot of the asian youtubers that I watch are from Texas which I used to find pretty surprising. most of them though are half asian and half white so that may have something to do with it? from the stats it doesn't seem like Dallas has a huge asian population though.
thanks for the compliments on my post :) idk I don't think it's necessarily pessimistic to talk about negative experiences that you had because that's just the truth ya know. and at the end of the day, all those experiences whether they were positive or negative still shape you. I also have…