I am a 26 year old typical guy who went through stages of moving from city to city trying to find that special place for me... and I never found it until I moved back home. Granted, I am originally from Bowling Green,Kentucky but have lived in the Nashville area for years and spent years here as a kid because my father moved to Antioch years ago. So, I am fairly familiar with the area and the people. I was a young 19 years old when I first moved from home to another city. I just got a job washing cars at a local dealership in my hometown when I was on my way home to tell my mother the great news when I was surprised from behind with a smashing and life destroying (maybe not completely destroying but I felt that way at the time) accident. A girl came flying behind me and smashed into my car band basically totaling my way to work. I got the money from my insurance company, bought a brand new Giant Bicycle and moved into an apartment in the St. Mathews neighborhood of Louisville.
I went to work everyday on my bike... rain or shine I was there and glad to be there. My family came up every weekend to visit and grocery shop and just go out and have fun. I was there three months when I found myself in a situation that lead me back home. The mother of my children took me to court demanding child support and it came out of my check every two weeks. I was barely able to even eat let alone have any fun so needless to say I couldn't afford to stay and at 19 getting two jobs didn't sound good but I contemplated on it for a few weeks. After being home for a while I decided to leave again when I was able to and this time with the mother of my children by my side. We moved to Brentwood Tennessee and she was with me for three months when she decided to leave and go back home to Bowling Green, which was better for both of us in the end because we had too much history to make thing work. I stayed in Brentwood for two years and moved to Downtown Nashville for six months and then decided to move to Chicago because I was confused about myself and who I wanted to be and even denied my own history and which I never admited but secrely loved... "The South"!
I gave my car to my mother, said I would never drive again, got into my Penske truck, moved to Chicago and a few months later found myself in a great job for a catering company. Everything was going great and I really felt that I was somewhere that I was welcome and wanted to be. With those feelings I felt from time to time that I had to hide my accent from people for people to like me and even though inside I hated that thought I made others think I was fine with it. It was Christmas time and I was on my way to Midway to fly to Nashville to visit family and I was really excited but made my family think it would be something that I was going to be uncomfortable doing because it was not Chicago. I got on the plane, came home, had a great Christmas in which I cooked almost all the food and made my aunt upset about that I think... even though she would never admit it. I went and seen all my friends and said my hellos... and this is where my life turned upside down, did a few back flips and made me land right on my ass but with a smile on my face that I would have never expected.
After a few weeks of visiting and it came time to go back to Chicago and I was excited to get back but at the same time I didn't want to leave. I spent some time with my ex-bestfriend and met a girl named Marlana. Me and her had so much in common and at first we were going through times in our lives where things wasn't so great. I did some things I knew I didn't want to be apart of when I came back but only for a few weeks and snapped back into the reality I wanted to be apart of. I started talking to her more and more and became good friends. I never thought anything of it but it has now been five months or so from when we met and I am in love with this woman. I love her so much. She gave up a lot to be with me and we are both excited about that everyday and even talk about it often how much has changed from the day we met.
In the end, me and her moved to my old place in Brentwood Tennessee, we are both happy and granted we had to start over and change some things in our lives we are both happy. I never expected to fall in love with someone after years of being alone and going place to place trying to find that "Special Place" when that "Special Someone" was right down the street basically from where I grew up. She made me realize that I am souther, and will always be southern. I love her accent, she says I lost mine because of Chicago but we argue about that in fun spirit and I refuse to believe I have lost my southern accent. My point is, you don't have to go looking for the best things in life if you just take a second and look at whats around you... you will find it and you don't have to go somewhere that might not work out. I am back down south, will remaine in the south for the rest of my life, found a beautiful southern woman that I adore and wouldn't give that up for a penthouse in Lincoln Park or the Gold Coast. Thank you Kentucky, thank you Tennessee, thank you Marlana, thank you to my family and thank you to my beautiful southern people that I hate at times but will always love and always will be.
