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A Coworker Dissed My Neighborhood to My Face
How I’m coping with feelings of insecurity about my street
I might as well say it: I live in a starter home. It is nothing glamorous or fancy and it’s no more than 1,000 square feet, but it’s the best I could afford. And I'm proud of being able to own my own place — that is, I was, until someone insulted my neighborhood to my face.
“Your whole neighborhood is a dump,” my coworker announced unceremoniously. I was too shocked to prepare a comeback — I’ve since thought of many a zinger, of which I’ll spare you. He went on to move the conversation in another direction without a second thought, but I couldn’t stop reliving that moment in my head.
I went through the phases of grief: Denial. Anger. Despair. Was I really slaving my days away to live in a dump?
I had to face it: There was some truth to what he was saying. Many of my neighbors are renters so they don’t treat our area with the same care that I do. It’s normal to find beds, lamps or other discarded items outside people’s buildings on my street. I didn’t pay much too attention to it, until the aforementioned comment.
But I’ve come to accept that there is a grain of truth to what he was saying. Just as I won’t let myself be defined by my clothes, or how I look, why should I…
