Introduction
This project takes you through my thoughts, feelings, and actions as I navigate(d) the Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus. Some of the entries are prompt-inspired, some are free-form. My overall goal for the entries was to capture the things I noticed on my walks. “Noticed” can apply to many things, however. It could be an object, but it could also be an idea or a feeling. Something abstract, something that I experienced that someone else might not. Or, maybe, something that someone else might! They are meant to be a look inside my mind as I walked (and sometimes ran) around the campus.
Some of the entries have no real rhyme or reason. Some of the entries are carefully structured to adhere to some mysterious guideline, or to inhibit some emotion in the reader. Some are meant to be silly. Some are meant to be serious. But whether or not I meant an entry to mean something matters not. The real beauty of this project is that each entry is open to any interpretation you would like. If you think that the reason I noticed something on my walk is because of aliens from outer space, that is okay. If you think that the reason I wrote about something is because I saw it, that is also okay. This project is not objective.
While reading, you may try to picture yourself taking the walk with me, seeing the sights, smelling the smells, and hearing the sounds. This is a great way to immerse yourself in the project that is Walkings. What would you think, say, or do, in that scenario? I invite you to explore my project with an open mind and hopefully, a picture will form for each entry about my walk.
-Ryan Nesspor
A is for Autumn
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Monday, Nov. 10
As the warm days of summer fade into memory, and icy gusts replace cool breezes, the trees slowly shed their leaves in anticipation of the cold months ahead. A sad sight, for sure, as bare trees are undoubtedly more unsightly than those with leaves. Alas, all but the evergreens must disrobe until the warmth and prosperity of the spring arrives for another year. Although they too, are trees, they have surely adapted some biological reason for this. Awaiting the springtime will bring our green friends back to their former glory. (90)
B is for Bench
Prompt 2.05, Photograph and text, Sunday, Sep. 28
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Clifford,Thank you for providing me with a place to sit. I was working on a project for class – Walkings, in which I must develop 26 short entries, one for each letter of the alphabet. I probably sat for about 30 minutes. Davidson Hall is a really nice place to put your bench, by the way. I tried to draw a map of campus while I was sitting there. It didn’t turn out that well, though. Maybe it’ll end up in my project, if I can ever figure out which letter entry to put it under. What kind of entries would you two write about if you had to do my English projects? I’m assuming, Mr. Clifford, that you’d write about chemistry! You were the department head, after all. Ms. Clifford, I read that you served in the Marine Corps when you were a young woman. Maybe you’d write about your time there? Anyway, campus is way different now. They paved over the drillfield and built a Wal-mart. It is seriously a real eyesore. Just kidding. (180)
C is for Chestnuts
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 22
I started my day today by searching for breakfast, and luckily I found a big, delicious chestnut. I usually prefer acorns or walnuts, but I won’t say no to a chestnut. After I ate, I decided to get a quick workout in. My fitness trainer told me I should do sprints back and forth across the power lines, but sometimes I get distracted and find myself on a branch of a tall tree. In between sets, I dropped acorns on students’ heads from above, usually from atop a building. Suckers! (90)
D is for Drifting
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 22
What’s in a cloud? Each wispy mass of water vapor tells a story, one of mother nature’s most sacred. The water cycle; first lifting water from oceans, lakes, and streams from places around the world, each droplet collecting to form a mass so large it can cast shadows on the earth.
When clouds form, we use our imagination to find animals, letters, numbers, and symbols drifting overhead, all day long. With them, come rain, gloom, snow, thunder, anger, and lightning. Perhaps we are not so different from clouds after all. (90)
E is for Elevator
Prompt 2.22, Photograph and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
Whenever I’m in Torgersen Hall, I always take the stairs. Always. The elevator, being old and slow, never seems like a good enough deal for me to consider taking it. It takes forever to come to whatever floor you called it to, and moves sluggishly when you’re inside it. Today, I decided to try it out again, and it was no different. In the same time it took to move to the third floor, I could have climbed the stairs and been there! I think I’ll stick to the stairs. (90)
F is for Flurries
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Monday, Nov. 10
The first snowfall of the year is cause for celebration, with bags of salt piled up awaiting application. Even if it’s just a few flurries, the amount of snow is the least of our worries. Winter jackets and snow boots and warm gloves galore, we’ll watch the flakes fall just beside the book store! All over campus the grass turns to white, and the temperature drops to quite cold at night. Just be careful not to slip on the ice; lest you fall and break something which wouldn’t be nice. (90)
G is for Gloom
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Wednesday, Oct. 29
Rainy days can be some of the best days, if you think about it. Sure, you might get wet, and the sun’s not out. But the rain brings a feeling of calm to an otherwise bustling college campus. People skip class and stay home, preferring not to leave the cozy sanctuary that is their bed. The shallow pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the pavement, or perhaps the window of the classroom you’re in, can relax all but the most stressed out students. Just make sure you remember to bring your umbrella. (90)
H is for Hackberry
Prompt 2.10, Photograph and text, Sunday, Sep. 28
Hackberry? I didn’t know what a hackberry tree was until after I checked the VT tree database. As far as I knew, hackberry was the name of a node in the rlogin CS cluster. Thinking about it, the rest of the nodes are named after trees…oak, pawpaw, persimmon. Anyway, the hackberry tree, or Celtis occidentalis, is native to North America, and it bears small orangeish/purple fruits in the fall. Pretty fitting for a school with orange as one of its spirit colors! I wonder if they’d make good pie? (90)
I is for Isaac Newton
Prompt 2.07, Photograph and text, Sunday, Sep. 28
What even goes on in here? By the looks of it, the owner reads a lot of comic strips. Looking closer, we observe the comics to be mostly those of scientific origins. We can also see larger posters, featuring famous scientists and scientific phenomena, like Albert Einstein, and fractals. If I had to guess, without looking up an employee directory, that this person is probably a physicist. We are in Robeson Hall, after all. If I didn’t know where I took this picture? I think I could figure it out. (90)
J is for Journey
Prompt 3.09, Audio and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
During this walk, I heard lots of sounds. I started on the outer edge of the drillfield and walked towards the library. I heard the low rumble of cars driving by, and even the heavenly whirr of engine-less electric vehicles. I heard lots of wind, as slow breezes and heavy gusts of icy-cold air made their way through the valley of Blacksburg. I heard footsteps, not just my own but others, wearing tennis shoes, boots, heels, flip flops, and slides. I heard voices, too, talking about whatever people talk about. (90)
K is for Kingdom
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Monday, Nov. 10
Have you ever noticed that the buildings of Virginia Tech look kind of like castles? That’s because they are. The neo-gothic style architecture that is used in so many buildings around campus is why many of our favorite buildings have ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and turrets. The arches integrated into the windows, doors, and support structures are also key attributes of this architecture. Hokie Stone, a type of limestone found in the Appalachian region, mined from a university-owned quarry, is the famous stone seen in the construction of these buildings. (90)
L is for Lookout
Prompt 3.15, Photograph and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
We can observe many security cameras as we take a walk around campus. They’re purposefully hidden, sometimes placed at great heights (as is the case with the pictured cameras atop Newman Library), or otherwise out of easy view. Because of this, it’s not easy to find a place on campus where you can be sure you are out of view. How does this make you feel? Are we more secure and safe? Next time you walk through campus, take a moment to think about all the eyes on you. (90)
M is for Midnight
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 8
While the campus sleeps, the grounds lay empty. Lamps and lights illuminate grass that stands void of people, sidewalks previously tread by thousands of shoes now go untouched. If these objects could talk, what would they say? If we could interview one of the sidewalks on the drillfield, how would it reply? Would it be distraught that so many people step on it each day? Or would it be satisfied that it is being put to good use, being a sidewalk and all. Or, perhaps, would they be fast asleep? (90)
N is for No Parking
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Sunday, Sep. 28
Signs help us navigate a bustling campus, through sidewalks and streets, across buildings and bridges, in classrooms and courtyards. Signs can tell us where the nearest Chick-Fil-A is. Signs can guide our way when our feeble intuitions fail us. Signs can help us, but they can also hurt us. Signs can be the bearers of bad news, forbidding us puny humans from parking, walking, driving, entering. Humans, who sent a man to the moon, built and dropped nuclear bombs, invented KFC. Stopped, entirely in their tracks, by a metal rectangle. (90)
O is for Owens
Prompt 2.01 Modified, Drawing and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
I used to go to Owens ALL the time back when I lived on campus. The food court, a mere 30 steps from the exit of my residence hall, included everything a hungry freshman could want. My palate has since expanded, however at the time it was really great. I recall all the late night study sessions, early mornings, and lunches-after-class that all happened at Owens. Funnily enough, I don’t think I’ve been back since I was a freshman. I’d go back if they brought back the Wan orange chicken. (90)
P is for Pair
Prompt 2.02, Video and text, Wednesday, Oct. 29
During the walk, we traveled about 0.5 miles. A bit about us: We’re comfortable, size 11.5 Nikes that Ryan’s had since he was a senior in high school. Honestly, we thought his feet would have grown since then. Over the years, we’ve walked, ran, stepped in puddles, had a milkshake spilled on us, and been washed a total of twice. We haven’t stopped to think about how far we’ve gone in the years he’s had us, though. There’s never any time – he only owns one pair of shoes. (90)
Q is for Quail
Prompt 3.08, Photograph and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
Have you ever stopped to think about the family of birds living in a nest? I didn’t – until taking a walk around campus in the wintertime. With the trees bare of leaves, nests are easy to spot, and once you see one, you see them all. What kind of bird-family lives up there? What’s their day look like? Maybe a pair of northern cardinals, or perhaps a talented mourning dove? Have they migrated to somewhere much warmer, or are they hunkered down, adapting to the harsh winter weather of Blacksburg? (90)
R is for Routine
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Wednesday, Oct. 29
A usual path, lunch-pizza in hand, taken to room 1070 of Torgersen Hall, the TA office. Always, I take the same route down the stairs, past the pipes, through the first floor. All things considered, I do enjoy the consistency of my routine, on Mondays and Wednesdays. “Alien” was how my students explained the recent lecture topics, demanding I help them with the day’s homework. Always begging me to give them the answers, or do their work for them. Alas, they refuse to attend class or read the lecture slides. (90)
S is for Someone
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Thursday, Oct. 2
This bench, in my opinion, is a classic example of hostile architecture. Why did Blacksburg Transit design it this way in the first place? The dividers limit the number of people who can sit on it. Could you imagine trying to squeeze more than one person on each of the 3 sections? Hopefully we only have three bus riders today! It seems to me that the only reason these dividers exist is to prevent people from sleeping or resting on the bench. Which begs the question – why do this instead of tackling the problem head-first? Why inconvenience bus riders, and more importantly, why purposefully remove a safe, lit place for someone to rest? Why not instead focus on other ways to prevent people needing to resort to sleeping on a bus stop bench? It appears that these designers of public accommodations have adopted the mentality that “someone else will do it”. Someone else will design affordable housing options. Someone else will solve the problem that I am contributing to. The only question left to answer, then, is: who is “someone”? (180)
T is for Touchdown!
Prompt 2.08, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 22
I worked as a volunteer at the football game versus Miami. All game long, I sold drinks and snacks to game attendees up until the third quarter. Walking around the concourse, whether it was to grab a new box of drinks or a bag of ice, I saw lots of people. Some of them were happy, others not so much. I also saw rain, seeping in through the cracks in the concrete. I heard cheers, boos, talking, yelling, and chanting. I heard people talking about how “bad we were at football”. The overwhelming scent of Benny’s pizza captivated me for the majority of the game. Thankfully, they let us (the volunteers) get free food from some of the less costly stands during the game. I’m not sure what I would have done if I couldn’t, since we were required to arrive at 8:00 AM. Anyway, I tasted pretzels, hot dogs, cookies, and even one of those fresh slices from Benny’s I had been smelling all game long. Sadly enough, I never did find the Dairy Club’s fresh milkshake stand. (180)
U is for Ugly
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 15
What truly makes something ugly? It’s a word that I’ve heard countless people use to describe Slusher Tower. I don’t really like it as an adjective. To me, as cliche as it sounds, beauty is something that cannot be put into words. Given that, how could we ever call something “ugly”? I think this photo, of Slusher standing high among the residence halls, in front of a soft, orange, Saturday sunset is indeed beautiful. Could I tell you why I think so? I could try. For one, the colors; the dark green grass of the Drillfield contrasts with the soft whites, pinks, and oranges of the sunset. In the middle sits the neutral dark gray of the buildings themselves, dotted with deep orange, yellow, and green trees. Maybe the composition of the foreground and background making Slusher the obvious subject of the photo? It could also simply be the feeling, the “This Is Home” that the university perpetuates. The list could go on. Beauty is everywhere around us, and it exists not necessarily as an adjective, but as a feeling. (180)
V is for Vawter
Prompt 2.01, Drawing and text, Sunday, Sep. 28
After drawing this from-memory sketch of the VT campus, I decided to travel to the Residential side to see what I missed. It’s been a while since I’ve walked over there, so it proved to be a walk down memory lane, so to speak. I walked down Drillfield Dr. and first came across a few less commonly known buildings, including Hutcheson & Saunders Hall. I didn’t even know Fralin Hall existed (sorry to anyone who frequents it)! My walk then took me towards Dietrick Hall and the Ag Quad, which was actually a spot I loved to spend time in when I was a freshman living on campus. Walking past Payne and Peddrew-Yates I finally returned to the most familiar area – Vawter Hall and Owens Food Court. Living here 2 ½ years ago, the familiarity of walking from Vawter and into Owens or Hokie Grill hit me like a truck. Funnily enough, they were the only two buildings from this side that I remembered to include on my map. I ended my (now more than 5 minute) walk by Newman Library. (180)
W is(‘nt) for Walking
Original Prompt, Audio and text, Wednesday, Oct. 29
Who says walking has to be outdoors? Those steps you take through the bus and to your seat all count, don’t they? Can anything really replace a good old-fashioned walk? What about a good old-fashioned bus ride? Unlike taking a walk, there’s a window to look out on the bus. Run? Bicycle? Can a jog on a treadmill really be the same as a jog through downtown Blacksburg? Is it truly the walking that makes them so inspiring? Or is it the outdoors? Or, perhaps even simpler, it’s the journey? (90)
x is for 3×3
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 22
I noticed, if you look closely, that the facade of Cassell is distinctly grid-based. The upper tan portion is divided into tiles, and within those tiles there is an inner grid of tiles. Additionally, the front four window panels are a 3 by 3 grid of window panes, separated by dividers. What’s more, the bricks outside the colosseum are laid in a grid, as one might expect. Lying in the background on the sign that says “Cassell Colosseum”, there are gray grid tiles. What other grids do you see here? (90)
Y is for Yesterday
Original Prompt, Photograph and text, Saturday, Nov. 15
As the sun sets and the sky fades into darkness, we consider our day complete. And when we rise from our beds, to the sun rising again, high into the sky, we are brought into yet another day. Yet, so many of us choose to be stuck in the past, to linger on things we can’t change – to be lost in yesterday. To dwell on our past mistakes is pointless. What’s done is done. Each day is an opportunity – a chance to do something, anything, meaningful. So why waste it? (90)
Z is for Zoom
Original Prompt, Video and text, Sunday, Nov. 30
Many people learn how to fly a plane at Virginia Tech. The Virginia Tech Montgomery airport is in a prime spot to offer pilot’s lessons to interested students. Taking a stroll through campus, you’ll soon notice the many airplanes that zoom overhead all day long. Small, learner planes, like the Cessna 172, are a dime a dozen. Private jets also stop by, like that of newly hired head football coach James Franklin. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a big jet, like a Boeing 737, in the Blacksburg skies. (90)