Going Home, A Southern View

Home is a wonderful place, and although going home again can be tough, it is an amazing experience once you get there. I left Alabama at 22 after graduating from Auburn University, and with my degree in hand; I set out with hopes and dreams of making a difference in the world. At that point in my life I was running, not searching. All I wanted to do was get as far from Alabama as possible and live a great life. Seven years later, I am thankful for the many adventures I have had, but Alabama is part of me and I miss it with all my heart.

Yes, I loved living in Manhattan! New York City gets in your blood and it is hard to leave. I made life long friends in Iowa, and I will always have a place in my heart for a state whose motto at the time was “Iowa, You Make Me Smile”, and let me tell you, it did and still does today. I fell in and out of love with a great girl while living in Toledo, Ohio. The great state of Texas was good to me. And Chicago is where I live today. Life in the windy city is amazing. and I am comfortable here, but it is just not home.

Home for me is, and forever will be, sitting in the shade of a white oak tree that you watched grow along with your family over the years. It is a place where you still look out for your neighbors. Where the elderly live their lives listening to the police scanners and gossiping about who they saw leaving the liquor store or whose messing around on who. Home is farming cotton, skinny dipping with your girl friend at the river, crappie fishing at the lake, drinking with buddies, while playing the sign game. It is where you can sit at night and count the endless stars in the heavens, while listening to the mocking birds sing. Home is where the family dog is, well, part of the family. It is where life and time move at a slightly slower pace. Home is where family still means something.

I never new how much I loved home and how much Alabama was a part of my life. I still bleed orange and blue as I cheer on the best college football team in the country. I laugh about driving to the county line to by beer since my hometown is dry! The last seven years have been exciting, but I miss home. Like it or not, Alabama is part of me. And I am proud to be from such a great place. I believe that Alabama is the Heart of Dixie and no matter where I live or where I travel, Dixie is forever in the heat of me.