Life in East St. Louis

I have lived in East St. Louis my whole life and am accustomed to this lifestyle. There are no many opportunities for me to leave this town, even for vacations, so I don’t really know what it’s like in the “outside world”. I tend to do the same routine every day for the past few years. I get up at eight in the morning to go to school. My mom is already at work by now, so I get dressed and eat breakfast by myself and head off to school. I live about a few blocks away from the school, and have always walked back and forth to school. In school, I went to my classroom that was shared with two other classes. There never is a lot to really learn at school. My teacher attempts to make class work, but there never seems to be enough books to go through the class or not enough pens and pencils to do the exercises. After this easy day of school is done, I normally just walk around. I used to go directly home, but since my mom got her second job, she is not home when I get there so there’s no rush to get home anymore. Sometime I just walk around, wondering around until it gets dark. When I get home there’s still nothing to do. I never get homework because there aren’t enough books for each student to bring home, and my mom gets home late to bring a simple dinner to the table. When I go to bed, I think to myself that I will be waking up to do the same exact routine tomorrow, and the next day.

Literacy and education both don’t really mean a lot to me. I go to school and feel like there’s nothing really being taught. There aren’t any resources to be used for my class or any of the other grades. I feel like there is no need to go to school sometimes because there is no learning being done. A lot of the older generations are living in homes with their families getting jobs, without a real education and aren’t very literate. I feel that if I would be able to get a job and be able to provide for my family without an education, why would I go to school and become literate? I feel like it should be important to get a good education and be able to read and write, but what is the point if there is nowhere to go from the bottom level jobs that don’t require it. No one in my family has had the privilege to get a good education and become literate and they are doing fine, relative to life in East St. Louis. I grew up in a town that people don’t rely on their education, but get any job they can to provide for their family. It would be very rare in this community for someone to go outside our town lines and make it big in the world. Education and literacy haven’t been a big important issue in my community so far, and it won’t be for a few more years until someone makes the realization and shared to the community that something can happen with a real education and going outside the town limits.