"When I said I'd take, I meant as is..."

"And I've got no illusions about you, guess what I never did. When I said, when i said i'd take it, I meant as is."

The first time my mother and I drove down north Broad street on our way to visit La Salle University, we were silent as we passed the decaying shops and dirty streets. Finally she turned to me and said, "you're not going to school here." Following the admissions office's directions we passed the Central High School football field with Central in front of us. "If that's La Salle," my mom said with panic in her voice, "we're turning around right now and going home."

It turns out we didn't turn around and go home, and I spent four years at La Salle. My mother never grew to like the city any more though, constantly complaining about the dirty streets and worrying about bad neighborhoods. I still don't think she really understands why I love this city so much.

Here I am, almost exactly six years since I first arrived in Philadelphia, and madly in love with a hopelessly imperfect city.

I have espoused before about the beautiful tapestry that is Philadelphia, the old and new weaving together to create intricate patterns. But it's not just the old and new, not just the old south philly men with sandwiches tattooed on their arms (a story for another time) drinking with 20 year old hipsters, or the Penn students living next door to the west philadelphia family that's lived there for 30 years. The tapestry is so much more complex than I can ever fully grasp.

Frequently students at La Salle rarely leave the campus. The neighboring Mt. Airy, Olney, and Logan prove a little to scary for the typical white suburban Lasallian. If they do leave the campus, they take a shuttle to the sub and go straight to Center City. So, it wasn't until I ventured out on my own that I really saw the city. The past two years, I have walked through or visited almost every neighborhood. I have worked 7 blocks from Penn and been in a different world. Walked through sidestreets in Kensington, and recently been to bars in Fishtown. I have picked up trash in West Philadelphia, and played games with kids from Olney. And there's beauty in areas that people forget about. There's crime and drugs, and kids who grow up way too fast. But then again there is still a little 6 year old boy who puts together a car out of legos and giggles with the wonder of creating something, there is still a mosaic of angles on a church that's lot is covered in trash. On a block where teenagers deal with the death of friend, there are still old men and women who sit outside and yell a hello to passersby.

The real tapestry of Philadelphia accepts the littered streets and urban decay. The personality of Philadelphia is dirty, crass and yet at the same time oddly beautiful.

My purpose here, I still don't quite understand. But while I'm living and working in areas of the city that most of my friends are afraid to go, I will embrace this city for all of its little beauties.