Benchin It Through College

I sat there like normal, my Monday, Wednesday, Friday, routine. Just me and the big black metal bench with my little pink bookbag and my cell in hand. Jessica has class at noon, and I at one....no point and riding the bus back to the dorm.

So I sit there, it's my bench...Im gonna write my name in whiteout one day. Usually there's a hustle and a bustle and when Im not on the phone I sit and I stare. Not to be rude of course, but Im interested. Im curious and Im a thinker. All I can say is, VCU is one heck of a diverse place. We've got a little bit of everything, except for the camo-wearers that I love so much!

There's the longboarders, the gangsters, even the elderly that never got the degree that they were destined for. And I enjoy watchin a little man with his rolley bookbag. Youd see him and laugh, point, maybe make fun of, but for me I just smile. For he's not "all-there" and he's for the most part umm...hmm...attracted to men Id suppose. I dont think my day is complete without seeing him running by with his rolley bag behind him....he's got this sort of hop-skip-run that he does from one door down the sidewalk and across the street. It's just cute...and I admire him, for I know he sees the young prepsters mocking him, he just goes on like he's on a mission and for that I accept him.

Well today was unusual, for it was cold and gloomy and I had that overbearing urge to just run to my dorm (yess...me run, musta been one heck of an urge!) and jump immediately in bed and sleep the world away. Makes me wish for someone to snuggle up to! I was all alone out there in the cold except for a couple people down the row (smokers of course, cause our buildings are smokefree!) guess no one had the balls to sit out in the cold!

So I sat there, in deep thought--completely random thoughts of course, and somehow things got peaceful. It was just me and the wind, damn..forgot my sweatshirt again! So fall is one of my favorites. There's something soothing about the leaves changing colors. I want to jump into leaf piles, picnic under a weeping willow tree, and carve silly, but sweet faces in giganto pumpkins.

The drought has been rediculous and Ive been praying religously for some rain to wash away the deadened past and give room for something new and spontaneous to grow. And there....out of nowhere, one minute it was humid and the next, it was rainin elephants!

My legs were gettin a little wet from the richochet of the enormous raindrops against he concrete, but I sat there. Lookin through the rain is amazing, it's soothing and well, Id highly reccomend it.

Everyone was ducking for cover, and I sat on my bench with the sweet smell of vanilla Black and Milds surrounding me, no you smartasses, it wasnt me smoking! I pondered life for the little while that I was out there. I became one with nature (I did have my shoes on Matthew!) and it sort-of encompassed me and if there's ever been a time in my life where I wanted to be a poet...well by golly, that was the time!

God has that way of being unpredictable and bam! The bolt of lightning scared the shit outta me and I went inside. I collected my random thoughts again and decided it was time for class, so of course, that's when the heavens opened up. So there's me, in my thin shirt, bag on back, walkin rapidly down that same concrete rampy thing that 'ol hop-skip had taken minutes before. I got to the crosswalk and the light turned green.

I walked into class, dripping from head to toe....the smell of wet dog filled my nostrils. And there was a nip in the air! :)