I was walking down Oxford Street on my way home from class Tuesday night.  At about 17th Street the man who had been walking toward me clobbered me in the side of the head, pulled my coat over my head, pushed me aside, grabbed my purse, and bolted down a side street.
I was robbed.  I ran the rest of the way home as fast as my stubby legs would carry me, my coat hanging on by one sleeve, a tears-and-nose-drippings combo running (almost as fast) down my face.  The doorbell is broken (why wouldn’t it be?), so I had to scream and bang on the door loud enough for my roommates to hear from our second floor apartment.
They didn’t.  But one of my neighbors did, and let me in.  She called the cops while I called my mom – Must. Cancel. Credit card.
The police officers who arrived asked the general questions one would expect to get (What was taken?  What did he look like?) and were patient and quiet.  They asked if I had been listening to my iPod when I was attacked, and an officer rolled her eyes when I responded “yes.”
After some time at the station (spent mostly answering the same four or five questions over and over and over…) I was free to go.  A Temple counselor called me later to set up a meeting where she could help me cope (though it seemed the main issue was re-printing my TU ID card).
In my three years at Temple, I have never before had any run-in with crime or violence.  I have never even had a trifle stolen by a weird roommate or random campus thief.  At the end of the day, I’m short a wallet, one law book, some keys, and an over-priced Nalgene bottle, but I’m healthy and home.  I refuse to feel sorry or wrong for feeling at ease in my own neighborhood; I refuse to let a mean person steal my pocketbook AND my piece of mind; I refuse to let this experience make me a cold or hateful person; Most of all, from now on, I refuse to carry cash.