I’m thankful to be a Tennessean.  Yes, we have our issues, just as every place does, but overall, this is a pretty good place to live.  Our summers aren’t too brutal; winters aren’t too harsh; and fall and spring are beautiful.  The natural beauty of this place is still breathtaking.  The mountains, the rolling hills, the stone-littered fields, the rivers, and the lakes are simply gorgeous.  I’m four hours from Nashville, Atlanta, and Charlotte, so if I need to experience a city, it’s not that difficult.  I’m eight hours from both the Gulf and the Atlantic, so the beach is also an easy escape.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m an hour from absolute and utter isolation, so when I want to escape from people, and for me that occurs much more frequently than the other, I can disappear into the mountains and get away from the insanity of humanity.

There are things I’d like to fix about this place, like the education system for starters, but the older I get and the more I learn about the nation as a whole, the more I see that the issues here are part of the bigger problems with the United States, so the state can’t be held solely to task for these issues.  Still, at this point in my life, the low crime rates, natural beauty, and low population density far outweigh the negatives.  Yes, I’d like more opportunities economically.  Yes, I’d like a better infrastructure, but both of those come with a trade off that I’m simply not willing to make.

I love my state.  I’m thankful for my state.  Even though technically speaking I was born in Florida, make no mistake about it, I’m a Tennessean.  My family on both sides has deep roots here, going way back, and my Scots-Irish heritage is deeply entwined with the Appalachian Mountains.  I’m also grateful that I got to attend college on the other end of the state in Memphis.  The Delta is part of me, too, and I’m thankful to have lived my life and given my service to the Great Volunteer State.  Tennessee: Agriculture and Commerce.  Tennessee: America at Its Best.