the place most connected with my childhood. I don't ask for anything here except the moment they allow and just to be with them. the hills behind are spotted with construction now and houses that are indistinguishable from one another. I used to ride horses in those hills, open in space and in time to explore and really be a kid. this budding adulthood is so marked by change and change so drastic my heart wrenches when I think about all the pieces of my life must carry forward without others. it all looks so different but the feelings of this place are boundless and forever tied.

I lost my innocence here, where the greenbelt meets suburbia. The time I spend here is very different now, I no longer meet boys here and spray paint the concrete structures for flood waters that scatter through the greenbelt. I now wonder if the houses will change as suburbia becomes closer and closer to the city, and how I certainly have changed. It looks the same but standing here no longer feels the same.

Empty spaces are where potential and freedom meets fear. We know in order to grow we must hurt a little and part with what's familiar and comfortable.

These are the things I wish to keep, though I know I can’t.

My generation is saying goodbye to its favorite places, even entire neighborhoods with cultural significance; the remnants of our childhoods are an Austin that seems too far gone. Some say that these changes which are overtaking our city, though they harm some, will benefit many. We're not so sure: the changes are certainly capturing us all, though not equally.