Keep Austin Weird

Counting days with my fingers, surprisingly I found out that I have been in Austin, the capital of Texas, one month and twenty days. Apart from the extreme weather, I’ve liked it so far. And there is something unique about this lovely city, its unofficial slogan--- “Keep Austin Weird”.

At beginning, I had some difficulties in comprehending this slogan, wondering for long, thinking about what does “Weird” refer to in this specific case? After perceiving people around, I started to understand it, yes, Austin is unusual but it is normal.

People here are very casual and informal. Take the dress style as an example. Wherever you go, you will find people in shorts and loose T-shirts everywhere, they don’t mind how others think about them, if they look too informal, or if they don’t look good enough.  What they only care about is if they are comfortable or if they are confident about themselves. Like a lovely family taking a walk at night around the state capitol; or a group of young people hang out in the 6th Street; or a romantic couple strolling on the riverside.  As long as they feel good about themselves, they already look confident and elegant. That’s something unusual but normal in Austin.

And I still remember one day, when I was waiting my bus for heading home after school, I was standing still, besides the bus station sign; out of sudden, I felt a fresh breeze passed from my back out of nowhere, a school boy running fleetingly with his bag pack just fell on the ground, rolling himself like a poor little cat; without thinking twice, he put himself together rapidly, and started running towards his destination at lightning speed again. People at the cross staring at him through the whole process, without any mocking or any criticism, easily like enjoying a piece of movie scene. That is something unusual but normal in Austin.

Barton Springs Pool, a natural swimming pool in Austin, is pretty famous. I have heard that people here like working out and taking advantage of it. I went there once just to observe. There are lots of different people in different ages. Thus, the most interesting thing I found out is the various tattoos that show from different parts of different bodies. All the shapes and patterns that you could imagine. With no doubt, I call them as a presentation of art; because they are wondrously beautiful, unusual but normal in Austin.

 

As time goes by, there are more and more migrants and immigrants here in the city. The movement of population is frequent every day. I would like to say Austin is become a melting pot, with tolerance of accepting different religion, different culture, different nation, and different race.  And with no social pressure, nor strange condemnation, Austin opens her arms to welcome all of us to her integration.

So no hesitation, we need to help Austin to be unusual, just “Keep Austin Weird”.