You can't love in the hood or Barrio. You can't show anyone what you really think, what you really feel, what you really want. Feelings are used against you. To deceive you, to take things from you, to make you feel weak. So you have to lock all your feelings, dreams, and hopes inside you. There you can hide them from everyone, keeping it a secret, letting it tear you up inside as you hide more and more. All of these feelings become your memories that can hold you back if you allow them too.These collection of memories are what I hid inside for years. Memories that haunted me and isolated me as I grew up in East L.A. and South Central L.A., California. Memories that I started to write when I was 16, on scraps of papers, journals, folders, and anything I could write on. Hoping that I could make them stick to the paper so I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. Memories that I have come to accept as part of who I am. Memories that no longer hold me back, but rather inspire me to achieve dreams I thought were not possible in the Barrio.Memories written in the perspective as I experienced them as a child.