Thank You, Hialeah.
One of my earliest and most beloved childhood memories is of my mother and I snuggled together in the dark in my childhood bedroom on the first 4th of July where it was me and her alone. From that bedroom window, we could see the fireworks exploding in the distance over Milander stadium in Hialeah. We couldn’t have known what the future would hold, but everything felt nice that night.
Somehow, around 20 years later, I found myself on the stage at that same event standing before 10,000 people as their councilman. My fortune, surely the product of a combination of life and luck, came about rather quickly and unexpectedly in the way that life tends to play itself out for me. It was buoyed by heart surgeries and relocations; bands and my education; feelings of doubt that bound themselves to a stubborn sense of purpose. Read: Life.
I was 23 then. Young, not married, still in school. 2 recent heart surgeries a couple of years prior had, again, changed the course of my life. And now, I found myself proudly representing my great aunts and uncles who cared for me when I was young. I found myself representing my life-long neighbors who were friends of my grandparents and were in the waiting room at the hospital ready to meet me on the day I was born. I represented the elderly person standing under the sun waiting for the bus; the child at school already traumatized by the looming threat of gun violence in this country; people on fixed incomes struggling to find affordable housing; the artist who never felt the city offered them a place to call their own; the kid who longed for a place to skate; the forgotten resident of an ALF; the people who, like me, were living with a pre-existing condition; and the city itself, whose image I was prepared to change for the better.
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Tonight will be the last time that I am introduced on that stage as a councilman. I have made the decision to not seek re-election. My life today is in a very different place than it was 10 years ago. I have a wife and a son to be present and provide for. And I have an education and the experience that will help me fulfill that goal. I will never forget this past decade of my life and all the people who were a part of it. Whether campaign volunteers, city staff, or friend alike, you made me look better than I ever could have hoped to be.
After being in office for nearly 1/3 of my life, the last 7 months have been my most freeing. Service will always be in my heart, and perhaps one day I’ll find myself able to run again. But you shouldn’t need a title to be of service to others. As for now, in the words of Conor Oberst that I read once long ago, “Guess I’ll just keep moving. Maybe someday I’ll get to where I’m going.”
Thank you, Hialeah, for accepting me for me. It’s been my honor to serve you.
Love always,
Paul
