Home, For a While

Rick and I lived in a community throughout 2009 that can best be described as “Silicon Valley High Tech Eclectic.”

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Cultures from every corner of the globe live here.

We emerge at dusk from our fluorescent cubicles, skip-a-generation childcare responsibilities, and ESL classes to form this unlikely village of the newly immigrated, from Kansas to Irkutsk to Calcutta.

They even let Canadians in.

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For the children, it’s where they will remember crafting sidewalk chalk masterpieces, until the lights came on and Granny made them come in for bed. Or where Mom was willing to make an extra turn around the commons so they could finish their story about Mean Sheila and the paint-station incident in preschool today.

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It’s a real community, made up of courageous people.

Everyone here has made a leap of some kind. We’re all optimists, in transition from where we were to where we will be.

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For some, the dreams are very big.

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For others, it’s very focused.

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And for some, the dream is not for them but for their children and grandchildren.

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Some are here so that their unimaginably bright and potential-rich olive shoots can bloom in a more well watered hothouse.

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Some are brought here so they can be supported and loved in a softer place for their declining years.

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The luckier ones find a way to take the pinch out of intense homesickness…

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… and some walk alone, far away from home.

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It really is a beautiful place.

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It’s an impromptu bubble party, just waiting for any passersby to join in the game…

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… and new life just waiting to get out and play with all the other kids at impromptu bubble parties.

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Some are waiting to cruise with a best friend…

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… and some already do.

Ask any resident here how they feel about living at North Park Village Apartments in San Jose.

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On average, we’re all pretty happy.

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