Although I haven’t lived in Tennessee my entire life, but for many people here at least, I am considered a native Tennessean. My family moved here in 1992, and other than a 5-year span of living in other states (SC and KY), I’ve been here ever since. It’s absolutely beautiful here with rolling hills of greenery and fields covered in flowers of every color you can think of. My happy place is the Warner Parks (Edwin and Percy), just a short walk from my current house (and even closer from my childhood home), and I can’t even count how many times I purposefully got lost in Nashville as a teenager, just so I could see the unique buildings and lesser-known shops and venues that I’d recommend to my family and friends. Adulthood started in Murfreesboro, a mere 45-minute drive to my parents’ and yet far enough away that I could make my mistakes, and various loves have seen me traverse across the wedge-shaped state I call home.

And yet now, I barely recognize it. Or maybe, I finally do.

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