Blog The First

It's my first time so this is going to be long and tedious. Now that I've made it through my first winter I would like to recount my life so far as the Summer Loving Georgia Boy whose come to this vast and empty Midwestern Plain-Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Why? is the question. "Oh, hi, I just moved here." "Where'd you move from?", they say. "I'm from Atlanta." is my honest reply. "What the hell are you doing here?" they chuckle in all seriousness.

And what the hell am I doing here? By all rights I should never have come to this place with skies so big, and land that ranges out farther than any man can see, but with nowhere to go unless it's out to the Black Hills for nature, or the Twin Cities for rock concerts, decent art, and a ballgame. No one but the absolute poor, the xenophobic, and Indians stick around when a three day weekend comes. Every youth I meet has a plan to run away and a fake tan to blend in once they get there to the Sunny Climes in there dreams. They mistrust me when I say I come from the South after living in Hotlanta, New Orleans and Athens. Of course I understand. You've all looked at the map a few times for a road trip, and glancing over the unheard of cities in states you constantly forget about, and you ask "Who lives there?" Who knows what kind of person you envision, what kind of caricature you come up with. But I'll tell you this, you Gods of Priviledge, they can feel your Eyes on them, the ones that have a notion and mind for the outside world. And they feel a false sense of shame and they despair. They want to break out and I don't blame them. There's nothing here for the ambitious, at least as we know of ambition. And as I see it I am an ambitious person full of hopes and dreams all within my intelligence and ability to seize. I never in my life would've come to such a place. And, yet, here I am. What the hell am I doing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota?