Number One: Why Are We Here?
As a little girl, I started keeping a journal because I enjoyed having place to pour my feelings and thoughts into. To this day, I still enjoy looking back at them and getting a window back into the emotions of a little me. Starting a blog has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while now but I have been putting it off for various reasons but I have a lot to say and I would like to have a place to put my ideas, and memories into again. I recently moved from Los Angeles, California to Austin, Texas and I feel like now is a great time to finally start.
I do not have a flow to this blog and my idea is to simply write about whatever I am thinking about that day. Hopefully in the chaos that is me, you will get to know me a little better and the perspective that I have on life might help you in some way.
Hi, I am Karla!
It is nice to meet you! At the time of writing this I am 29 years old and I have been living in Austin, Texas for four and a half months. I was born in Los Angeles, California in a hospital off the 5 freeway, raised by my mom and dad who had me when they were in their early 20’s and immigrated to the USA from Mexico.
The first home I ever knew was a small converted garage in a Los Angeles neighborhood called Boyle Heights. At the time, I did not realize how growing up in a predominantly Latino community would shape me as everyone around me was the same ethnicity and it was the thing that mostly united us, a common understanding. Although, I did not realize that I was part of a minority group until I was in high school but that is a discussion for a different day. What is important is that I had the unique opportunity to grow up surrounded by my culture, the bad, the ugly and the absolutely beautiful parts of what that means.
Boyle Heights holds a special place in my heart because it exposed me to struggles that many only see, hear, or read about in the news but within that were moments of pure humanity that humbled me and caused an empathy in me that I still carry. I am not sure how to explain and over the course of this blog I will revisit this topic and tell some of the stories of this time in my life.
For now, I’ll stop here as its getting a bit late and I have work tomorrow.
