Obviously since its a personal essay I have to write it on myself. I decided to write about growing up and just being a kid. The things that I did and the moments I shared with my friends. I decided to use "A Remedy for the Rootlessness of Modern Suburban Life?" by Sarah Boxer. In the article when she talks about the new urbanism, it says "They call for some old-fashioned things: walkable neighborhoods with a mix of residences, businesses and public places; straight and narrow streets; wide sidewalks, and no cul de sacs." It also says "They believe houses should be built close enough together and close enough to the sidewalks to define streets and public squares." When I first thought about it, I thought it was creepy how things should be like that until I thought about it. I remember growing up, as a young child, and walking the streets by my house with my neighbor, who was also my best friend, and things weren't bad. We used to play in the street with everyone and make huge child scenes. The houses are directly next to each other with only a driveway and maybe some grass separating them. We played in everyone's backyard and acted like kids. Nowadays, no one in my neighborhood knows anyone else and things changed. There's day when I don't want to walk outside at night ... I also chose "Connections" by Deborah Tannen to use for my essay. In it she talks about how she would wait for four hours to make a phone call home to her parents and how she used her e-mail a lot to communicate. As a young child I wasn't on the phone much but when I hit junior high, me and my sister's used to fight over the phone. We were always talking to someone else. In January of 2000 we got our computer and the internet. That too became a fight because we all wanted to talk to our friends online and surf the net. Eventually we got older and stopped fighting and now we have our own computers. It just brought back memories. Communication was tough as a child because I had two older brothers and two younger sisters so you had to talk loud and fast to even be heard. There was a lot of yelling and screaming in my house and even in my neighborhood. I remember yelling across the street to my neighbor all of the time. Those were the days when nothing mattered and you could actually be a kid with no worries ...