October 19th, 2007
Hmmm…
I remember when I was 14 and it was, or at least in my young brain. perfectly safe to walk home by yourself. Bowling Green isn’t particular crime ridden. We have our drunks, and every couple of years a random murder. Once in a while some other random thing happens that’s not so cool. But in the past there was times I felt safer wandering around than at home. That feeling passed eventually, but wandering never did. Over the years I got a little more paranoid about walking home by myself. I think partly because in my head, most bad guys in this town are gonna leave a 14 year old alone… they’re still just kids (Obviously not in all cases is it true, but it seems like when things happen to people in this town by a stranger they are at least late teenagers and older). But when I was 17 and 18, I became a little more wary. Started walking home in the middle of street, tried to take the most lit streets, all that stuff.
I think it’s because people around my age and college kids have been getting assaulted and jumped and what not that as me on edge. I’ve also been walking everywhere for the past 3 weeks. I just walked home from the Grill and the whole time I couldn’t help feeling freaked out. And for no reason. No one was around. But if something did happen, I have no idea how I’d handle it. I’m sure I’d do the best I could. But even the idea that something could happen has me all on edge. But what am I going to do? I can’t just stop going places. I’m sure nothing will happen. It just makes me wonder what all the police officers are doing when all these people are getting assaulted. Was patrolling increased when it became obvious that the university and the town were having a problem? Or is it just being chalked up to random goth kids getting harassed. Or “just the normal campus problems”. I’ll never understand what makes some people beat up on other people. How can anyone think that ever alright? Different social groups, races, anything. Or just doing it cause it’s fun. Makes no sense to me. Maybe I was raised better than they were…
I just know that it would be nice to be able to walk home with out feeling threatened.
On a different note… I’m not sure how accurate this website is… but it’s kinda fun to stick your name in to see what comes up anyway… There are 2 Jennifer O’Herron’s in the US, I think that number includes me… although I’m not sure if the search pays attention to the apostrophe and the capitol “h”… but I do know there is another Jennifer Renee O’Herron out there… so I know it’s not completely wrong! There are 1,412,342 Jennifer’s in the US, making it the 21st most popular name. And there are 485 O’Herrons (they say Oherron though) in the US. Which is significantly more than I thought…
Bedtime.