The Backstory

I consider myself to be a lot of things. Sarcastic. Witty (to an extent). Cynical. Trusting. Contradictory. Southern. But none of these attributes define me as a person, but some people think they should.

I have been pigeonholed. But, more importantly, I allowed myself to be pigeonholed. I essentially pigeonholed myself.

I never considered myself to be Southern until I went away to college. My friends made no secret of their affinity for or disgust of my accent, which was apparently much thicker than I had ever realized. It's hard to tell what you sound like when everyone in your hometown is a varying degree of the same dialect.

And while I did finally begin to embrace my Southern heritage, I also became quite self-conscious of it. So I started beating my friends to the punch and making a spectacle of my Southernness.

Then it somehow spread to the rest of my life. Any time I was in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation, I would use my Southern heritage as a conversation starter or point of reference. At first it was great, and then it wasn't anymore.

I began to realize that I had somehow created these parameters for my life that only allowed me to be one thing -- Southern.

I've pigeonholed myself in my relationships, my education and even my career. That all stops right now. Well it at least slows down, I can't exactly go cold turkey here.

Baby steps.

My life revolves around my relationship to the South, so now is my chance to just observe the world without restriction.

I'm a free-range writer now, off my leash for the first time in 5 years. Watch out world!