Salvete! My name is Lily, and I am a freshman at Bryn Mawr College. I am interested in studying Sociology and Classics (with a focus on Latin). My hobbies include CrossFit, physical therapy, and the Overwatch League (an eSport). My hometown is Columbus, Ohio, and I have relationships with three of its western suburbs: Valleyview, Hilliard, and Upper Arlington. I feel more “at home” in Valleyview and Hilliard, so I hope in this class I can better understand my relationship with both of them and their relationship to the greater Columbus area.
I moved to Valleyview from Richmond, Virginia when I was 3 and lived there for 10 years. It is a poor and racially diverse area, but I still lived in a social bubble where I had limited interaction with Black and Brown people, especially kids my age. I think this is largely because I went to private school literally across the train tracks (and the Scioto river) in one of the wealthiest (and whitest) suburbs of Columbus, Upper Arlington. I then moved north-west into the Hilliard suburb when I was 13 with my dad after my parents' divorce. It is mostly middle-class and white, but I still crossed the same set of train tracks and the same river to get to school and felt that same shift in neighborhood, just to a lesser degree.
I have included a link in Google Maps to the railroad tracks on Trabue road:
Going NE (past Dublin rd) takes you into UA, while going SW (and then turning left onto Hague) takes you into Valleyview. This is one of the places I spent the most time waiting in traffic, and it’s the best way I can show you the contrast. Please feel free to take a walk if you would like!