Upon telling my friends, family, classmates and strangers that I had chosen to spend the next four years at VCU, I found that my decision elicited three very different reactions from people.
Reaction #1: My brother-in-law’s cousin’s wife’s second cousin’s daughter went there! Yay! Go Rams!
Reaction #2: That’s such a big school! Congrats!
And Reaction #3: Oh, so you’re living in Richmond? Better get some pepper spray!
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While this third reaction bothered me at first, I soon came to realize it was the people who knew the least about VCU and Richmond in general that said this. While Richmond can be a scary place, I wouldn’t trade my decision to come here for the world. And here’s why I chose to come to this large, beautiful urban school:
1. It’s as different as you can get.
I come from a small town where everyone chooses one of three schools: UVA, Virginia Tech or JMU. A few people chose VCU as well, but not nearly as many as the people that chose those schools. While I’m happy for my friends that chose to go there, I wanted an experience as vastly different from my own life in a cute, rural college town as possible. Richmond was not only as different as you could get from my hometown, it’s also close enough that I can go home when I get homesick/get tired of eating Cane’s every day. (No, I’m not actually eating fried chicken every day Mom. I’m eating healthily, I promise).
2. DIVERSITY!!!
I will always hold a special place for my hometown in my heart, but there’s one unshakable fact that comes from living in a small college town in central Virginia: Everyone there looks, dresses and acts the same. Upon touring a few other schools, I noticed this as well and wanted something different and diverse. The first moment I stepped foot on VCU’s campus, I knew that this school would provide the diversity I so desperately sought. This is one of the perks of going to school with over 30,000 people–no two people are the same. The hundreds of different cultures represented here are not only incredibly interesting, but incredibly refreshing.
3. You’ll never be bored.
One of the downsides of living in a small college town is that if you want a change of scenery, you have to drive a few miles. Living in Richmond, that problem doesn’t exist. If I want to do something off-campus, I can walk to downtown, Carytown, or Belle Isle; all of which are only a few miles in each direction. One of the MANY perks of living in Virginia’s capital city.
4. ~*
As much as I loved living in a place where I could hear cows mooing from my bedroom, it was time for a change. As clichĂ© as it is, I’ve always felt that the city was the right place for me and I was right. The sirens, the sense of purpose, the nightlife, the jaywalkers–all of it feels like home to me.
5. Mo’ people less problems.
One of the many pieces of advice I heard time and time again before move-in was how easy it is to feel lost in such a large school. But this was actually an incentive to me. I wanted to be around people that I had never met and have the opportunity to make new friends without feeling like I had to hang out with the same 12 people I knew from home. Most of my friends from back home went to school with each other and while this left me feeling a bit left out, it strengthened my resolve to dive in headfirst with all the clubs I could join and people I could meet. This has helped what was at first an alarmingly large school feel both smaller and more like home.