My RVA: Around VCU

Some nights I wander around VCU and immerse myself in the hustle and bustle of all of the students. 

Anyone passing me thinks that I'm just like them. It's kind of fun taking on an assumed identity. A lot of the times I'm coming from a coffee shop where I've just finished up some work, so I even have my computer and a big bag to look even more the part of the avid scholar. 

I walk the paths they walk, and see the things they see, and wonder what it must be like to do this every day. Or almost every day. 

I look into windows and notice walls wall papered with PBR cartons (Only in RVA....). I read inside jokes and secret messages (now not so secret) graffitied onto garage doors and brick walls. I hear the sound of the never ending construction slowly fade away as the day exchanges itself for the night. I see expressions of concentration, of worry, of excitement, of passivity and of contentment, on the people who pass by.

 I wonder what it must be like to be connected to such a large group of people in such a singular and definite way. 

VCU is a part of this city of mine, and though sometimes that can be annoying, primarily with the traffic and over crowded streets during week day afternoons, it's a part of Richmond that I really actually love. 

It feels like home.