Sweet home alabama

Not just a crappy Reese Witherspoon movie

Alabama: What comes to mind when you think of that state? Rural Southern plantations? Rednecks and racists? A certain Lynyrd Skynyrd song? Southern belles with Southern drawls? For me, Alabama means something else, something much simpler, and yet more meaningful: it is my home. Yep, that's right. I've lived in Alabama my whole life, and still do when I'm not at Penn. So for me, Alabama is not a joke or a stereotype; it is the place where I grew up and the environment that feels most natural to me.

For most people at Penn, however, this is not at all the case. The majority of students here hail from New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, and know very little about the South. I know this because every time I meet someone new here, I find myself going through the same (now predictable) interaction. After I say I'm from Alabama, the other person responds with some comment of surprise, or even disbelief, usually followed by a series of questions, ranging from the innocent to the slightly obnoxious. "Why don't you have an accent?" "Do you live on a farm?" "There are Jews in Alabama??" "How did you end up here?" That's an interesting one - asked in the same tone one would use to question how something near impossible (and thus unbelievable) happened.

I don't mind it when people ask a lot of questions, except when they do it with a tone of superiority. These people prefer to uphold the stereotypes and not much that I say to them will significantly change their view of the South. So I let these people wallow in their ignorance. It's only their loss, not mine, if they choose to go through life living in a bubble in order to maintain their ego.

I must admit that I can relate to the sense of disbelief one feels after hearing that I'm from Alabama. Often, immediately after I tell people that, I get this weird sense that it can't possibly be true. Maybe it's an unavoidable inward reflection of the outward conversations I'm repeatedly having. Really? Alabama? Am I sure about that? How can I possibly be from there? I don't have the accent, although more and more I wish I did. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not what you'd expect from a Southern belle. In what crazy world did I get the distinction of being able to say for the rest of my life that I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama?

Being from Alabama may not make much sense, but really, not many things in life do. And if my purpose right now is to be here and educate my humorously close-minded peers about "what it's like" in that mysterious, infamous, yet lovable region known as the American South - or even to defy their expectations of what someone from that area should look, speak, or act like - well then, I guess I'll just have to deal with that. And when I'm not here at Penn shivering from the arctic temperatures, you can bet I'll be at home, enjoying the plentiful sunshine, eating my share of barbecue, and reminding the Southern folk that I don't go to Penn State.

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