Jaime Flores says many young people don’t have the spaces for play and an active life the others take for granted.
I still remember the time I refused to move to a different place. In the beginning, I was confused when my parents told me we were moving to an apartment in SoCal. I remember telling them, “Are we taking the trees?”
A few days into my summer break, we checked out the place, and while my parents saw the apartment, my sibling and I looked around, and we noticed the place had gates and entrances, a big parking garage and the walls were painted white. We saw it did not have any spaces for kids to hang out in. Those were important parts for my sibling and me, other than wanting to see plants, flowers, and more colors.
Eventually, my family and I moved here before I started middle school and found out other kids there felt the same. We hung out together and helped each other choose the possible afternoon games we could play using the laundry rooms and the space in the parking garage. When we were not playing, we enjoyed snacks and put any money each of us had together for everyday objects to play.
While I’m an adult now, play and connection is needed in our everyday lives as it helps us discover the world and how it works.
