I Am Spoiled...

As many of you know, I went to Notre Dame. No, I am not a spoiled rich kid. Far from it. My parents told me if I wanted to go there, I had to get a scholarship or be willing to contribute to student loans. But I am spoiled; I just didn't realize it until tonight. Well, to be perfectly honest, maybe I knew I was a little spoiled, but I'm ready now to admit that I'm really spoiled...or at least I was really spoiled...

You see, Notre Dame is a pedestrian campus. There weren't huge parking lots by every dorm or classroom building. We walked everywhere. Fifteen minutes from my dorm to the ROTC building (ya know, instead of paying back loans with money, I just offered the Navy four years of my time and the possibility reality of deployments and going to war for my country). Two-ish miles along the paths that surrounded the Lakes. Across the quad and past the security building to the student parking lot. I never felt unsafe. I never worried. Even in the dead of night when it was freezing cold and students were huddled inside. I was never scared.

I think maybe I took that for granted. I didn't know I was spoiled. Until tonight.

You see, I'm in Nursing School. And I am finishing up pre-requisites in order to start my clinicals. Because of my schedule, this semester I am taking one class at night at the recently re-opened and re-loacted local public community college. That said, don't be fooled by the new buildings, fancy labs, and smells-like-a-new-car equipment. Those things remind me of my former spoiled, private university self. No, instead, focus on the location of the brand-spanking new campus: Victory Blvd. For you who are unfamiliar with Hampton Roads, suffice it to say that Portsmouth, and particularly Victory Blvd. is not exactly the "right side of the tracks". No; in fact, when I was in high school, I dated a boy from that area and I was not allowed to drive to his house alone even in the middle of the day. And even though the new campus is top-of-the-line, the parking lots, which were once a mere 100 feet from the front doors of the college's only building, are now a football field away from the loading dock of the closest building. And of course, the building I have to go to is across campus from that!

When I got there this evening some weirdo creepy guy who was either a custodian or a delivery person tried to talk to me...and then there were the requisite horny teenage boys who thought they had a chance (no, I am not trying to haughtily say I'm hot; I'm simply saying that I'm a young, fairly attractive woman walking alone).... And that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle.

Sorry, but I think I'll trade the high-tech computers and comfy lab stools for the scuffed walls and dated overhead projector and security of the old campus!! Yes, I'm "spoiled" and I don't put a price on my safety, regardless of public or private funding.

Needless to say, when class was over, I called my mama and talked to her as I walked between buildings and parking lots to my car... I know "they" say not to talk on your cell phone while walking at night because it impairs your ability to be aware of your surroundings, but I figure if I'm talking to someone, if/when I start screaming at least that person knows where to send the cops...