The Where I Live series aims to showcase our diverse city and region by spotlighting its many vibrant neighborhoods. Each week a local resident invites us over and lets us in on what makes their neighborhood special. Have we been to your neighborhood yet? Get in touch to share your story. If your story is selected and published, you will receive a $250 stipend.
I’m a recent college graduate coming from New Orleans, Louisiana. Moving out to San Antonio has given me the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree to open doors for my future. However, making a new environment feel like home presents its own challenges.
From navigating the continuous construction of the expanding city, to the cultural differences between The Big Easy and the Alamo City, there is no shortage of daily obstacles that make me feel drained.
I’ve lived in San Antonio for about two months now, and life around me still feels foreign. To accommodate, I’ve used active participation in sports to help build confidence within myself while also gaining familiarity with my community.
As a resident at The View at Crown Ridge, I live directly in between two golf courses on the Northside of the city — Cedar Creek Golf Course and La Cantera Golf Club. Naturally, as a former collegiate athlete that played golf Loyola University New Orleans, this piqued my interest.
Trey Ponce drives golf balls at the Cedar Creek Golf Course, where he enjoys unwinding after work.
I’ve done my best to get out to either golf course at least once a week to chip and putt during the late afternoons with some locals. I can say it’s been therapeutic, especially while watching the sunset on San Antonio’s beautiful hill country. The people I’ve met at these country clubs were kind to take me in and provide me with great insight on popular activities and must-try food spots while I live here.
While golf has been a comfortable bridge into my new surroundings, I’ve also found myself drawn back to a familiar passion roughly ten minutes away from my apartment. Submission Concepts is a wrestling gym which connects me to my athletic roots, but in a different way.
During my time in New Orleans, I was taken in by a small wrestling club when several members noticed my kinetic ability. Since then, a year and a half has gone by, and my experience and yearn to get better at the sport has only grown.
Joining Submission Concepts has opened more doors for me to become familiar with people that live near me in Leon Valley. The gym’s hospitality has welcomed and helped guide me through San Antonio since my not-so-long-ago arrival, which I am grateful for. I originally thought it was coincidental that I found this gym near my apartment. However, I don’t believe that anymore.
Trey Ponce bounces a golf ball off his putter at the Cedar Creek Golf Course, where he enjoys unwinding at the driving range.
As a newcomer, San Antonio once felt like a place I just moved to, but now it’s becoming a home. My neighborhood has given me two spaces to balance myself. One providing mental relaxation when practicing on my short game or helping others on their own. The other, pushing me physically while creating bonds on the mat. Simultaneously both have connected me to the community surrounding The View at Crown Ridge.