Dear V.A.

I've spent the last year of my life in the same state that four years ago I promised myself that I would NEVER return to, however since life is so unexpected I had to break that promise after college. I've been so angry all my life at Virginia because she failed to give me the city life I crave for, she stepped on my dreams, and she turned her back on my future.

V.A is a place to settle and always has been since; 1776 and it fails to offer  big dreamers a place to launch their dreams into reality. It's about promoting the already successful and pushing back the ones pressing forward. I've been angry at V.A. because nothing comes from here, nothing is started here, and nothing is here...

I've become unhappy and settled in a life that I know isn't for me, the curse of V.A. has struck and I'm scared I'm stuck. After sitting in my room for the last two hours thinking of my next plan to leave, someone said something to me.  He said, "just because nothing comes from here, doesn't mean you can't be the first to start it."

But, when people see VA they automatically think the country side with fields and hills; not glamour, heels, and city life because that's not what it has to offer. I could change the dynamic of my state, or I could turn my back on her as she has done to us... Do I stay here and fight to put VA on the map or do I make it and be like other famous individuals from here and never state what my State has done for me...

So I was researching and found that the motto of VA is, "Sic Semper Tyrannis." Which means, "Thus is always Tyrants." And "Tyrants means; "a sovereign or other ruler who uses power oppressively or unjustly." Now, what type of motto is that for a state in a Democracy?

The symbol is a woman standing on a man's neck, which is suppose to mean; The two figures are acting out the meaning of the motto. Both are dressed as warriors. The woman, Virtue, represents Virginia. The man holding a scourge and chain shows that he is a tyrant. His fallen crown is nearby.

The woman is standing on the man's neck and the man is "tyrant" and has fallen to the woman, but that makes no since at all. Because if the man is "tyrant" and has fallen to the woman then why is our motto centered around the definition of being a 'tyrant"? I don't get it? Do you?

So can one really blame me from running from the same state, that made me a product of my environment, not in the literal sense. I hate VA, I hate what it has done to my friends and my family. It has given girls my age nothing to look forward but babies and baby daddies, and the government supporting their lifestyle.  I hate that it has over looked violence, because they were looking for drugs which in turn buried my friends at an early age.

I hate that my friends are stuck , and believe this is all that life has to offer? I hate that my friends gave up! One can say that I should blame my friends, but they blame themselves enough. V.A. you only have enough to offer the already successful, and nothing to offer the trying to become a success.

Dear, V.A.