Chinese anyone?

Monday afternoon, I went out with some friends to get Chinese at the local buffet.  If you know me really well, you know I cannot go a month without getting Chinese. 

This is not what this post is about. 

My friends and I have all graduated high school and college in some form within the past five years.  During our little escapades with chopsticks and General Tao chicken, we got into the conversation of living in Mississippi.  Now let me recap, for the past year I have been working on a little side project between school and work called “Think Mississippi.”  This project plays host that not really a lot of people know what is here in Mississippi or its history without personally being here.  Nadine, the friend who is originally not from here, asked me how to the project was going.  This is how the conversation went:

“It’s going great.  Still doing research though.”

“I still don’t know why you’re writing about this place anyways.  There’s nothing here.”

At this point, our friend Amber entered the conversation.  She was born and raised in Mississippi, but has never set foot out of the state. 

“I mean, seriously, Leann.  There’s nothing here.  That’s why I wanna get outta here as soon as I can.”

That conversation caused me to do an about face in my mind about “Think Mississippi.”  Through my research and those little sentences, I’d come to realize that the main problem is not people outside of Mississippi being uneducated about this state.  The real problem is her own people being oblivious to her charms and what she has. 

Now I can’t say that I’m not guilty of saying that I wanted to get away from here, but since high school five years ago, I’d prefer to live here, especially during these tough economic times, rather than packing up my car for parts unknown with no money.  Before high school, I wanted to move to another state and get as far away from here as I could, because there was nothing to do or see.  It was so boring.  I had the same attitude as a good half of the population of Mississippi has.  I later learned with what little age I’ve gain that wisdom and knowledge soon follow most of the time. 

In the coming post, I hope to have an excerpt of the “Think Mississippi” essay written and finished for your to read.

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