Have You Been To Philly?

Have you ever met someone from Philadelphia? People from Philly love being from Philly. Someone from Philly finds out someone else is from Philly, or someone just loves Philly, and suddenly everyone's yelling in pure Philadelphia excitement. And if you, as an outsider, really want to make these two joyous people even more amped, all you have to do is whisper Wawa... And boom. You have effectively derailed any other conversation for at least five minutes.

Throughout the years I have been asked if I a.) have been to Philadelphia and b.) know what a Wawa is.

The answer to b.) is, yes. Several years ago, I got sent to DC for work. Some of my travel mates were from Philly. I don't know if babies born in Philly are implanted with a microchip that lets them always know the location of the closest Wawa, or if this is just innate to the terroir of being from Philly, but the Philadelphians all knew where the nearest Wawa was. We went multiple times a day, the entire trip.

For those of you not in the know, Wawa is a convenience store, kind of like a 7-Eleven, except that everyone from Philly is reading this sentence and freaking out at the comparison. They will tell you Wawa and 7-Eleven are not at all the same, and that Wawa is elevated and a million times better, and Oh My God, have you tried their coffee?

So yes, I have been to a Wawa. And yes, I had the coffee, and yes, I did appreciate the array of snacks and food.

But have I ever been to Philadelphia?

When I was in college, I went to a lot of concerts, and one year Bright Eyes (You can judge me, it's fair) was playing in Philadelphia. So after class on Friday, I got on the discount bus (this bus brand was known for its low prices and fiery interstate accidents) and settled in for the multi-hour drive to the great city of Philadelphia.

We arrived after dark. Our little group knew a few people at U Penn, so we made it over there and spent the entire night awake before going to bed around dawn.

We next went outside when it was dark so we could go to the Bright Eyes concert. At the concert, Connor Oberst, king of emo himself, played his set then smashed his guitar into his amp. Honestly, this startled me. The music is just so sad and moody, the shift into violence seemed like a lot of effort.

After that, we wandered around the city until we found an all-night diner. Inside, I had the BEST grilled cheese and tomato sandwich I've ever eaten. That was true for my 20ish years of life at the time, and it is still true 20ish years later. That sandwich was manna from heaven.

We went to sleep around dawn and woke up at dusk. We hustled to the bus stop, the sun low in the sky, before getting back on the bus and heading back to our college.

I have a distinct memory of looking at the grey skyline, grainy in the weak winter sunlight, and thinking, I wonder what this place looks like during the day?

And to this day, I cannot tell you. Would I go back? Yes. With the amount of people who seem genuinely in love with the place, it seems like more than just a place people live and work. The sixteen-ish hours I spent awake there in college were not enough to reveal to me why people love Philly, but they clearly do.

If you don't believe me, just watch next time someone from Philly meets someone else from Philly. You'll see the brotherly love. They'll hug in the street, yell about good times, and fight you to the death if you tell them the coffee at Wawa sucks.