Caroline

 Lena

When I moved here, to Cleveland Ohio I was only 7 years old. My family and I moved from Greece. I still remember the first few months we had been there, no one really noticed that my family and I had moved here. I felt shy and invisible. 22 years later here I was taking a walk down Gibb Street when I saw the garden. It looked so pretty with all of its different plants and foods everywhere. You know at a first glance it looked like there was at least fifteen or more plots! I loved how everyones crops were mixed up, "it wasn't just these spaces are for flowers" or "over here is for fruits" and "if you have a vegetable it has to over there!" Even though everyone was different they all came together. Everyday for about two weeks I walked by the same garden. I just liked seeing that no one cared what race or background someone else had, they were all very friendly in their little... community, blocked from the outside world. After weeks of moping around, I went to be apart of the little community. So one warm Tuesday in the fall, I walked to the Gibb Street garden. At first I had no idea what to plant but then I started thinking. In Greece when I was a little girl, my family and I would go visit my grandfather’s farm every Sunday. There, he grew olive trees so I planted olive trees to embrace my heritage and in memory of my grandfather. The plot I had chosen was next to this man's named Gonzalo. He would always just look around at people and he never really talked... well to me at least. Gonzalo made me angry! I pushed my way over to my friend to find out if I was doing something wrong. I went to ask around about this Gonzalo and thats when I met a few of my good friends, Leona, Royce, Curtis and a very sweet young girl, Kim. When I asked about him they all said something like "Yes, he is really quiet to newcomers but once you start talking to him he has a very interesting and inspiring story. Well thats true for just about all of us here in the garden". But that one little girl... Kim said something very different. She was only 9 years old but she said to me that she was shy and didn't really talk to the other gardeners because they were all older than her and she was scared but Gonzalo went up to her and he was very nice to her. I was inspired by Kim because, she just moved here and she is around my age when I moved here. She is 9 years old. knows no one and has started a community garden and made so many knew friends! After hearing what everyone said wanted to talk to Gonzalo and really get to know him and see if he was really like everyone said. The day I started planting my olive trees Gonzalo was there to tend to his uncle's peppers so I decided to start talking to him. After a few minutes of talking we were fascinated by each other's life stories. After learning that he would translate for his family because they couldn’t speak English but he was the only one is his family that could speak the language it was so inspiring to me because it showed me how much people can do for each other. Royce for example, chased after a criminal who stole a women’s purse and caught him and held him until the police came. When before he was sleeping in a dumpster!I have met so many wonderful and inspiring people because of this little community garden. It has showed me no matter color skin you have or what your native language is or what your background is people bring each other closer and that can change the world.



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