Richmond culture is new, fresh, interesting and sometimes odd. This up-and-coming city has so many distinct groups of people living here. But the two groups that draw attention to are the city and suburban kids who are trying to adapt to Richmond’s quirky-ness. Suburban kids tend to live their lives at a slow pace, while city kids are the people that seem like they’re always running to their next destination. You can tell a city kid from a suburban kid living in Richmond instantly, if you notice these tell-tale signs.
1. Suburban kids have a sensitivity to alluring dangers.
We were all freshmen at some point in our college careers. However, if you were a freshman at VCU you were introduced to the VCU ALERT system almost instantly. There’s just one thing they forgot to tell you before you actually hit download in the App store; that you’d get 10 daily alerts at the minimum. City kids are not fazed by the alerts, not even a little bit– they may check it and read it briefly, but it never consumes their entire day. However, when a suburban kid receives that same alert they instantly go into a state of panic (and so do their parents, grandparent and maybe even their next-door neighbors back at home).
2. Suburban kids don’t jaywalk.
Being a city kid myself, jaywalking is essential to getting where I need to go. Jaywalking is both illegal in some states and quite frankly the most dangerous way to travel. But that doesn’t stop city civilians from jaywalking in order to get from point A to point B. You’ll also notice that city natives do not wait for the right of way- I am referring to the little white walking man that pops up, letting you know that traffic has stopped and you can cross the street safely. City people just think the walking man on the flashing sign next to the traffic light is just there for decoration and has no real importance. Meanwhile, suburban kids not only cross directly on the crosswalk, but they also wait for the green light and they will not move not a minute before, even when there is no traffic in sight.
3. Suburban kids don’t walk as fast as city kids.
There is nothing more satisfying than reaching your destination on time. It’s even more satisfying to arrive to class on time when you slept through your alarm. Fast walking is a skill and maybe even a virtue. City kids walk super-fast, even when they don’t need to. It can be frustrating when a city person gets stuck behind a suburban person that is in no rush and just enjoying the scenery. In truth, city kids could learn a thing or two from suburban kids because they really take everything in around them, learning exactly what great spots Richmond has to offer as far as food, thrift stores and poster shops. In part, suburban kids are examining everything around them because they can only tell directions using landmarks (which is totally fine, but things get tricky when you go to a school that literally has three Seven-Eleven’s within three blocks of each other).
4. Parallel parking
Parallel parking is a thing of the past, or at least it should be if you asked a suburban kid. It seems pointless to them; who needs to know how to park in-between two cars and right next to the curb, right? All jokes aside, you’ll know when someone from the suburbs is trying to park because they’ve either cut the curb way too sharp or their car is basically still in the street. You can also tell who the city kid is in the situation because they’re the ones who are probably recording it on their Snapchat.
5. Suburban kids get lost on public transportation.
Public transportation is the thing to live by in the city, and there’s a bus that stops at just about every corner. The subway station, train station or just regular bus system isn’t complicated at all to a city kid. They actually enjoy swiping their bus passes or putting the dollar into the machine before taking their daily commute. It’s fun sometimes, smelly other times and just down right slow when you really need to get somewhere. It’s not that suburban kids think they’re too good for public transportation. They just don’t see the point in catching eight buses, two trains and one cab to get to where they need to be. Especially when all they needed to do in the first place was pull out their keys and drive for ten minutes. If you ask me the suburban kids have got the right idea when it comes to saving time, but city kids have the perfect idea for saving gas money.
6. Complaining about traffic.
Really traffic is not that bad. To a suburban person, sitting in a car any length of time is too long of a time. For a city kid, sitting in an hour’s worth of traffic is the best traffic they’ve ever endured. Especially when they’re so used to sitting in traffic for four to six hours at a time.
7. Suburban kids Uber everywhere.
I think suburban kids took that song way to seriously, they didn’t actually mean Uber everywhere. A city kid avoids Uber at all cost, even for a walk that says 15 minutes. To a suburban kid, a 15-minute walk may seem like forever and so the only option is to Uber.