I have lived in New York City for all of my 36 years of life. As a kid, my parents and I normally went to places like Albany, Connecticut or Niagara Falls for what we called a vacation away from the city. Prior to my Sophomore year in high school, Albany, New York had been the only place I had visited that was as far removed from city living as I knew. But that all changed when my grandfather passed away and my family and I had to go down to Tennessee for his funeral service.

Visiting Tennessee was like going to another planet for me. I had never been down south before so this was definitely a culture shock. I remember the car ride there and as we got closer to the southern states, how much the roadsides changed. I was seeing cows and farms, things I had never … READ MORE ...