Dear Tennessee

It has been a wonderful (short of) five years we have spent together

As a 21 year old your southern hospitality scooped me up with open arms. You offered me the perfect environment for growing into myself. You gave me teachers and friends who cultivated my passion for creating. For this I am indebted and forever thankful.

You gave me a place to call home, a foundation to build my family, and memories that will surely be some of my fondest.

You introduced me to twangy accents, beautiful old brick buildings, the smell of tobacco being harvested, and deeply rooted southern values.

Your soil is dense and hard to till, but the benefits of working the rich soil has showed me the beauty of rich ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, and sunflowers that reach for the endless sky.

I admire you for thriving in the summer heat, even when the cornstalks shriveled and burned last year. This year I am in awe of the power of the storms you have brought that have soaked the earth and given lushness back to the crops.

Most of all I love the people you take care of, their relaxed pace of life, their proud sense of where they came from and where they are going, their love for our country in good times and bad, and their ease and friendliness to people like me.

I love the essence of you Tennessee. I will miss you. Your charm and strength. Your never-ending summers. Your beauty that radiates from Graceland to the Appalachians in the East.

I know this isn't goodbye yet, but these are just some feelings I had to share for now.

Love,

Me

(We are moving to NC at the end of this month!)