Personal Narrative: The Way Home In Georgia

When you envision a place called Twin City you may think about it being a big place, I

Though I spent my entire life living in North Carolina I never thought of myself as a Southerner. My understanding of the Southern lifestyle was quite limited; there is an emphasis on family solidarity, and self-sufficiency with an agricultural backdrop that is part of their essence. The South is not simply a location, manners or customs it is a way of life. Hearing the childhood details of a favorite professor allowed me to envision a picture perfect life under the shade of a magnolia tree and little southern girl who grew up to be a Sandhills Community College professor, Mrs. Cole.

“Five Mississippi” -- Oozing crimson blood squirts and jets all over my snug apparel. Like a blazing fire, it spreads all over my “scratched” body . “Four Mississippi “-- One last glimpse of the moon playing hide and seek with the clouds, before I fade away. In that grimy, dreary, and wintry starlit sky, but that weather just made me expect the feeling of death. “Three Mississippi” -- Eyes of scarlet are gazing at me, however, I only perceive a blur; yet those eyes only made its ivory silk tailcoat, silver lining top hat, and chocolate skin seem more…nefarious. “Two Mississippi” -- Cozy fuzzy gloves are carrying me; flinging me to the strange electric glow of that eerie river; where I slowly sink into the ominous waters: drowning, bleeding,

Many of the harsh dilemmas I encountered that were directly related to me conceding to abuse alcohol, existed well in advance of my decision to relocate to Atlanta, Ga. In fact, from what I'm able to ascertain by way of reliable sources, including my wife, is that my primary motive for leaning more towards this decision was to find help for the perils and perplexed conditions in which my life had twirled into. Initially, though I was unable to interpret the chaotic turn of events, or the uncivil behaviors I came to embrace, it appeared that everyone else around me were solely aware of them and were also jointly convinced that the only way out for me was to seek professional guidance. Their wrath about me drinking as heavily as I did were

Ever since I was able to write, I documented my everyday encounters. My journal expanded alongside my writing skills. However it was until college that my true passion for storytelling unfolded. My freshman year, I declared my major in journalism. I craved getting out of the college bubble and actually going into the community. Listening to stories about people within the community excited me, and I thrived off being able to rely this new information back to the public, especially people within the college bubble. This past year I was able to publish some stories about volleyball and softball games in Ole Miss’s newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. Currently I am a member of the Native American Journalist Association, working on a project about

In recent days I had the opportunity to go back to North Carolina for a few short days. There, with a heavy heart from a loss in the family, I had nothing else to look towards. I’ve always heard of individuals finding peace, faith, blessings, and love of Christ from attending church. I’ve never been a person who put their faith into a higher power. As I was growing up my parents never wanted to force me into any religion without me knowing everything about it and choosing which route to take on my own. As the years treaded on, I never bothered myself to learn about the many different religions and what each stands for. So I used this opportunity as mine to attend church for the very first time. I attended the Roman Catholic services held

I remember the day I had to move to Atlanta, like it was yesterday.I remember watching the news and the reported kept repeating that the state of Louisiana was under state of emergency because Hurricane Katrina was coming and that everyone had to leave as soon as possible.Knowing that my home was going to be destroyed,made me feel so broken just because of the fact that there was so many memories there.My family didn't have big enough cars so we was able to take everything that we had in our homes,so most of my childhood pictures,toys,clothes..etc got destroyed.We didn't have a place to stay for like a week or so but eventually we found a shelter in a different part of Louisiana.

I was 12 year old when I started playing basketball. My dream was to be similar to Michael Jordan. However, my GBL team has lost every game since I’ve started playing basketball. I was also playing with my older brother Jeremiah for the first time, but we were always fighting about whose better. I knew this season would bring us together. With a lot of hard work we finally won. It took me and my brother to work together to win.

One of the hardest things about moving to Little Rock for college is knowing that I will not get to enjoy southern home cooked meals everyday. My grandma’s crispy pork chops with fried potatoes, and creamy macaroni and cheese and freshly picked green beans, from the garden in the backyard, or her homemade vegetable soup and buttered cornbread really screams my name as I stand in line for a standard cafeteria meal. Not having her cooking available to me everyday is definitely a struggle. Food is the center of my whole family. Food is what brings us together. Not just ordinary food though, no. It is southern home cooked food.

When I was at school the other day, my band instructor told me, “You are one of the hardest workers I have ever seen, why do you work so tirelessly if you know that you might fail? I was quite surprised because she has been teaching for 33 years. I responded with your book, Almost Home.

My connection to the state of Alabama is that I was born in Fairhope, Alabama and lived there with my family till I was 3 years old. My family loved living in Fairhope but due to job opportunities they decided it was best to move back to their home state of Louisiana. Even though I don’t recall much of the time I spent living in Alabama, I do remember the many visits I took with my family every year to visit our extended family and friends in Alabama. Additionally, I went to Riverview Summer Camp in Mentone, Alabama for two weeks every summer as a child.

Have you ever been to Atlanta,Georgia before?The time i went to Atlanta,Georgia was month I have ever had. I got to hangout with my cousins,family,and friends. We had so much fun with them because we did something so much fun.We went to Atlanta,Georgia to go visit people.

It all started two weeks ago. I had just moved into a beautiful home. The owner of the home had sold it very cheap, I’d had wondered why, but didn’t care to ask .I was just glad I got such a great deal on such an amazing home. I was so excited that I bought a plaque with my name engraved on it. It reads “The Home of Matthew Jones,” it really wasn’t necessary but the amount of money that was left over after buying the house was incredible.

My journey with the Georgian has taken many forms. First I began as a photo placer unsure of what photo placing was; then, I moved on to be a copywriter filling in for other copywriters; next, I was upgraded to a full-fledged copywriter; meanwhile, I had also become a fill-in designer for the junior school yearbook; subsequently, I lead of the design of the junior school yearbook; finally, I took responsibility for a section that had lost its head; consequently, I became a section leader.

Mark and Amy Bishop hated their new neighbors, they had only been here for less than a month and already they found them loud rude and completely into themselves. Each day they found themselves finding another problem, another subtle nuisance that that made their blood boil. “I can’t believe their playing music at this time of hour” “don’t they know other people are trying to sleep” Amy would complain. They just let their trash pile up outside it makes our entire neighborhood look bad Mark would say as He looked out the window to see the mountain of trash that had been made from old pizza boxes and half drunken beer bottles and although Mark and Amy would try to ignore to the best of their ability they found themselves all too often at ends with them.