I grew up in the Pinelands of New Jersey, on a quiet street in a quiet town. With only six houses on my entire street, everybody knew each other. Because of this, we could leave items in our front yard or even on the street without fear of it being gone when we came back.

However, I have not had the same experience in Philadelphia. When I moved to the city for college, a friend donated her bike to me, which I loved because it got me to the river much quicker than walking. When I was new here, it was a huge deal to me to have a bike. I wanted to explore so much of the city, but never had enough time to walk far places, so I rode my bike. It took me to the stadiums, both rivers, the Art Museum, and north Philly. Since this was my favorite thing I owned, I really tried to protect it and keep it safe. I always kept it in my dorm since I knew it was safer, but one day it was wet and muddy out. This had made my bike pretty dirty, so I locked it outside of my university’s dorms, thinking nothing of it. The next day, I went outside to grab it to go to a friend’s house, but it was nowhere to be found. I’m assuming that somebody cut the lock and got a new bike while I was asleep. The only thing I have left of it is the lock keys.

After I lost my bike and was left to walk, I got to see the city from a whole new perspective. When I rode my bike everywhere, I tended to just go from point A to point B as quickly as I could. This caused me to miss out on noticing so many things that I passed every single day. Walking everywhere really slowed me down and allowed me the time to take in everything around me. From this experience, I have discovered what have become my favorite places in the city. Without being forced to walk everywhere for awhile, I would have continued to pass these places daily and never would have given them a second thought. For this reason, to whoever stole my bike, thank you.