This tile is designed as an 'L.'
Lima for me was about the people. I was young when my family moved away, so I don’t remember much, but the people stick with you. Some of the kindest people I’ve ever met were a part of my life in Lima, shaping the person I am today with their actions and our interactions. Even today I get Facebook messages from people giving updates on their lives and wondering about mine. They pass on hellos from others, and the simple gesture of letting me and my family know that they’re thinking of us is a lovely reminder of the life we had there. I attribute them thinking of me to my family—I was six when we left so I couldn’t have made that much of an impact, but my brothers were loved, as were my parents.
We go back every once in a while; our family friends, who have three kids the same age as my brothers and me, host us when we do. Their daughter and I were best friends and continue to be good ones. After school everyday either I would be at her house or she would be at mine. I loved going to hers, partly because for snack we would get a kinder surprise egg. Still today I see one and think of those days, opening up the little yellow tube never knowing what would be in there, but ultimately it brings me back to her house and the people within it. It brings me back to the love and appreciation held between our community, and the fact that those people will have a place in my life for the rest of it.