"Aren't you worried?"

I won't pull any punches--I live in a reasonably rough neighborhood.  I've never had any trouble personally, but the Dairy Queen a block away got robbed, and the laundromat, liquor store, and Dollar General two blocks away got robbed around the same time.  There's a bullet hole in my living room window.  Let's just call it colorful, shall we?

I work in what would be considered an even rougher neighborhood.  Ironically, once you cross the railroad tracks on the way to my office, the houses get more rundown: porches sagging off of houses like droopy smiles, plastic tacked to windows in a futile (if it's anything like my place, it's futile) attempt to keep the heat from escaping the old windows, cars that have seen better days next to cars that look so good I'd be scared to drive them...

People ask me:
"Aren't you worried?"
"Don't you feel nervous?"
"Don't you get scared?"

In a word: no.

I've never had any trouble myself.  Sure, there was the time last summer when police swarmed the house behind me, shouting at the person who was hiding in there that they had guns drawn and they wanted them to come out. (The windows were open...)  I would suppose that was the closest I've been to "scared" and even then, I wasn't.  The police would be utterly foolish to risk everyone else around that house; they would say something if we were in peril. (at least I'd like to think they would?)

Besides, what would being worried, nervous, scared do?  Not much.  Am I cautious?  Yes, that would be the word for it.  Aware of my surroundings?  Yes.  Prepared to drop things, kick hard, and scream loudly?  Yes, yes, and absolutely.

Frankly, I'd be cautious anywhere I lived or worked.  I'm a woman.  I'm a slender woman.  I'm a fairly easy target for someone who really wanted to do some harm.  So does it matter where I live or work?  No, not really.  Yes, statistics might put me at more risk some places more than others, but what good is living life in fear?

It's easy to look at a place or neighborhood and compare it to what you know, and fear the unknown. And that's where the fear lies--in the unknown.  It's easy to look at the end result of an underlying problem and make a snap judgement.  It's easy to look at a particular part of town and not realize why things are the way they are.  People look at the crime, and the grime and the poverty and don't remember (or know) why.  (two major plants closed in the 80s which laid off hundreds of workers and decimated the town economically--and it's still recovering.)

It's easy to do all those things--and a lot harder to do something to change the way things are.

I kind of enjoy where I live and work--it's a new perspective in my life that I might not have had otherwise.  Instead of looking at it as something to fear, I'm embracing it for what it is--a chance to see things the way others might see them.