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Garnett: Country Analysis

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I have spent much of my childhood growing up in a small town in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. This town, Garnett, is the physical embodiment of the phrase “the country.” Winding, unpaved dirt roads carved deep into the earth as if they were forged at the beginning of Earth’s creation. There are lush forests with towering pine trees and spruce trees, riddling the ground beneath them with pinecones and pine needles. The only buildings there is a post office, a mini mart, and an AME church. Every fall crisped evening, towards Thanksgiving, ended with wild turkeys weaving through traffic in the hopes of reaching the safety of the forests before the hunters’ dogs catch wind of their scent. My family owns a few acres of Garnett that …show more content…

The thought of leaving it never crossed my mind. I childishly imagined that I would live there for the rest of my life as the head caretaker of the stray dogs. Garnett was home. Unfortunately, my dream did not last long because of a job offering for my mother in Columbia. Of course, the move brought new anxieties that I had never experienced to my attention as I helped my mother pack boxes into the back of a U-Haul truck. How was I supposed to survive in the “big city” when I lived in a small town that no one has ever heard of? Will I be able to handle being around so many strangers and sounds after living in tranquility and peace for the first half of my …show more content…

The masses of people going into the stores astonished me the most. Garnett and the towns surrounding it are predominately black. In all of my years there, I have only seen a handful of white people and one or two Mexicans. The most diversity I was exposed to was through TV. I had always wanted to learn about other cultures but, the slug-like speed of a dial-up Internet connection and the one library in a nearby town did not have a significant amount of books blocked all access to any information on the topic. The close proximity and variety of malls and movie theaters made the usual forty five minute long car trip from Garnett to Beaufort obsolete. The libraries are filled to the brim with eclectic array of genres of books and the Internet is faster and more readily accessible. Animal control prevented stray dogs from wandering the streets and all owned dogs have to be licensed and spayed and neutered. The multitude of differences between Garnett and Columbia were a culture shock to me and took some getting used to. Once I did, I realized that living in Columbia has opened my eyes to a bigger world full of opportunities and diversity. Since moving to Columbia, I have visited Garnett a few times. On my most recent visit, I had a conversation with my grandfather. “Good to see you!” he said, “We haven’t seen you in a while. Do you miss it here?” “Very much

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