Personal Narrative: Skaters Paradise

Skaters Paradise, one of the few places I enjoyed spending time as a child. Growing up in Slidell, La had its ups and downs throughout the years. As a child some things seemed so much bigger and better then they actually were. I grew up in a household with three families and two cousins my grandma adopted. It was times I really was not able to see my parents because they worked so hard making minimum wage. I think overall Slidell have improved in some areas that they were struggling with when I was a child. As I grew up I started noticing my hometown in all aspects such as education, health, social, and economical. The schools I attended starting from elementary were always known as the “black” people schools. I went from Bayou Woods Elementary to St.Tammany Jr.high, and graduated from Salmen high school. In many ways I could understand why most people had their negative input on those specific schools. There were times school would get canceled because of bomb threats, or a riot had started which led school to be put on lock down. It even went as far as other students dressing up as if they went to high school with us just to come
I remember having to travel all the way out an hour and thirty minutes to get to a charity hospital. Slidell does not have many options for people with no insurance or low income, and thats coming from a personal point of view. There was not a planned parenthood, free clinic or anything in that sense with a minimum copay. As a matter of fact if we needed to go to the doctor for any reason we had to travel to a different city to see the doctor at a reasonable price with no insurance. Even now with insurance me and my family still do not qualify to go to a doctor in our hometown. Most people like myself, go to New Orleans, Covington, or Mandeville to visit their doctors. Slowly but surely I'm starting to see a change in my hometown dealing with