My walk home
So, yesterday I had a long day of classes, then physics lab, then rock climbing with friends, and finally a physics review session. By the time all of that was done it was 9:00pm. I started to walk towards the bus stop, which is in the general direction of my apartment. I checked the bus app and saw that I had just missed the night bus by a few minutes. It would be at least half an hour before it would come back around, so I decided to risk it for the biscuit and walk home. Itâs about 3/4 of a mile from campus, which doesnât take too long to walk.Â
I started to walk and thought of all the things about girls walking home alone at night. I was tired from a long day, but I wasn't worried about walking alone yet. I got over the bridge, fully out of campus, towards other closer housing. It was a nice night and I was wearing shorts. It felt great, but people could obviously tell i was a girl because of what i was wearing. I walked on, between Luckyâs Market and Big Cat Liqueur. I wasnât nervous, until i saw a man sitting out front of the liqueur store. He continued sitting there, but we noticed each other. Iâm sure he was questioning my decision to walk around at night. I kept walking and got to the sketchy pink houses where some woman was out yelling at someone, or maybe herself. As I approached I was worried that there was a confrontation happening, but she payed no attention to me as I passed. Now I was walking past the Shell station. Itâs nice that itâs well lit, but often thereâs homeless people asking for money next to the street. When I got to the intersection there were two guys. One was a college student and seemed non-threatening and the other was a grown man, maybe 30 or 40, who looked a little sketchy. I was a little on edge, so I went ahead and crossed the street there instead of waiting to do it closer to my apartment. This way I could keep an eye on them from a âsafeâ distance. I pulled out my keys, mostly because Iâd have to unlock my apartment door soon, but also just in case.
The light changed and the crosswalk sign came on. We all crossed on our separate sides of the street. Now Iâm at the part of the walk where there are few street lights and it gets a little creepy. All the thoughts ran through my mind. My hair was down, which showed a more feminine look, but at least it wasnât in a pony tail, which would be easier to grab. My backpack was getting kind of heavy and I thought about the whole fight or flight thing. I looked over at the two guys walking on the other side of the street. The older man had stopped. At first I was a little worried he was stopping to cross the street, but he was standing by the buys stop. It made me think of the time when the guy in the ski mask walked behind me as i walked home, earlier that year. I had never been that scared before. Thankfully there wasn't a ski mask guy this time, so I wasnât too fearful. I kept walking and saw some men behind an office building. I was close enough to see the lights of my building, but it would still take a few minutes to get there. I saw them, but they didn't see me and I kept walking. I gripped my keys and got to my apartment. Everything was fine and I saw the bus dropping people off in front of the complex. If I waited for the bus, I wouldâve still been waiting.Â
