Why I Can’t Wait To Get Back To Philly

As much as I do like working at BMS, I can’t wait to get back to Philly. The reason is actually pretty simple: there’s always something going on in Philly. If you spend the time to look hard enough, there is an extremely good chance you can find something to do on a weekend. From a performance by The Philadelphia Orchestra to the annual Cherry Blossom Festival to just walking around the Old City District, in Philly, there was always something different you could do each weekend. Here in NJ, on the other hand, weekends are pretty routine. And damn, are they boring. Where I live in NJ, there’s pretty much nothing to do or see, especially in the winter time. No museums, no festivals, not much history; the place to hang out around here is the mall. In Philly, it was pick a district or a park (preferably one SEPTA serves).

I really miss being a Philadelphia Orchestra subscriber, just about every week I’d be at the Kimmel Center for a performance of something. Honestly, I didn’t care what was playing, I just wanted out of the dorm. I’ve spent just about my entire life sitting around at home on the weekends playing video games, or in more recent years, watching anime. Trust me, it may seem nice to be able to do that every weekend, but when it becomes a routine, it’s not as glorious as you think. I honestly feel that I’m just wasting my life every weekend here. Life is far too short to not go out and explore. Philly was great for that. Here in NJ, exploring is finding a parking space at a shopping center.

Philly wasn’t just great for exploring for the sake of getting out of the dorm, it was great for exploring places where you could get some really awesome photo ops. In Philly, I always had my camera on me. And that’s paid off more times than I can easily remember. Perhaps the best time was a flash mob at 30th Street Station. The rooftop garden at the Kimmel Center was a favorite place of mine to snap pictures from. Any time it was open without having to sneak up to (which was very easy to do accidentally), I’d go up. It was a fairly neat spot to record the Eiffel Tower light show from PIFA 2011. In Philly, you never knew what you were going to run into on any give day. OK, so you might be able to expect a number of things, but I found myself pleasantly surprised plenty of times. For example, the last day of my last summer vacation, I decided to spend the day in Philly. That day, most of the roads in the Franklin Parkway Museums District were blocked off for some kind of event. I still have no idea what it was, what it was for, or what it was about, but I think it was some kind of hispanic event. Given the diversity in Philly though, I could very likely be wrong about that. Nonetheless, I had no idea it was going to be happening. I certainly loved being able to walk the Franklin Parkway without any cars on it though.

So what will I do first when I’m back in Philly and all moved in? I have no idea, but I do know there will be something to do waiting for me, especially on July 25th.