I am not a southern girl. I grew up in the northern-most state in the continental US. I was completely terrified to venture south of the Mason-Dixon line on my own. But I did it, and I'm glad I did.
In the past, when I have thought about how I want my life to turn out, I always pictured myself at a grad school in the northeast. I wanted to go to Boston for the longest time. That's where I saw myself, and that's what I wanted. But something changed. I met a boy, and my plan went out the window. I don't have one anymore; MY plan no longer exists. It's OUR plan now, and OUR plan took me south.
"Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing. Too late to go back to sleep. It's time to trust my instincts. Close my eyes and leap. It's time to try defying gravity."
Initially, I was just going to write an extensive list of all the weird things about the south. But then I realized that the midwest, or more specifically, Minnesota, has just as many oddities. Where Minnesotans ice fish, southerners bow fish. We have lutefisk and cheese curds, and they have grits and boiled peanuts. It would just as strange for someone from that part of the country to come to my home as it was for me to go south. This is what I have to remember.
Out of everything that I have experienced on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line (side note: I just looked up the Mason-Dixon line on Wikipedia, and it turns out I've been south of it all summer. Huh. But, you get my drift...), the most striking to me has been something that I wasn't sure was going to be true: Southern hospitality. I figured it would be like Minnesota nice, and sort of exist when people felt like it. But it's real. It's real.
I acquired a brother in Scotland. His family allowed me to stay in their home while I was off galavanting in a foreign place. They welcomed me with open arms, and it sounded like they didn't even know much about me. They treated me like part of the family, and it was something relatively new to me, outside of my own family. Usually a guest knows they are a guest. But I didn't feel like a guest; I felt like I belonged. I felt like I gained another family. I loved it, and leaving this morning was much more difficult than I imagined. But I digress...
I have loved my experiences in this very different part of the country. I have enjoyed every minute of my grad school trips, and I feel like I am gaining a part of me that I didn't know even existed. Life slows down in the south, and that is something that I have always searched for and never been able to find. While my days in DC fly by at the pace of a city that never sleeps, my weekends are reminiscent of the lazy summer days of childhood. Once I arrive in my destination, everything happens at its own speed. I never knew I was looking for that, but I found it. I can sometimes feel myself talking slower, the beginnings of slipping into an accent that I will never fully be able to acquire. For the first time, I have been able to wing it and feel ok about it. My plans consist of a general idea of what I want to do, and I figure out the rest as I go. It's a life I never knew I was looking for. But I have fallen in love for the second time in my life, that much I know for sure.
When Justin first told me that he was probably going to be staying in Nashville, I felt stifled. I was upset, because I had wanted to apply to schools for forensic science all up and down the east coast. But then in Scotland, my plans changed. OUR plans changed. I don't want to go into forensic science anymore. I want to help people. I want to be part of the greater good. I want to go into pharmacology. Many instances led to this decision, but I am completely happy with it. It was meant to be this way, and I fully believe that certain people came into my life for the sole purpose of guiding me down this new path. And I am happy with the result; I am happy that Justin is going to be stationed in Nashville. I thought I wouldn't like the south, but I love it.
The thing that truly stands out the most is my change of heart about the south. I thought I would want to leave as soon as I got there. I thought I would be dreading the day when I say goodbye to Hope College and hello to whichever grad school I choose to go to. But I can't wait. My life is about to begin. And all I can think about is this:
When do I get to go back? :)
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