MS vs. LA, The Showdown

I have never really said where I lived before.  I lived for a while in Mississippi.  Yeah, I know.  I am pretty well covered in tattoos, with bleached blonde hair and a bad attitude.  I BELONG in NOLA.  At first, it was an adventure.  I bought cowboy boots, I lived in a trailer.  I tried to change who I was, to fit in where I was.  I did this for years.  I lived out in the country for a long time.  I lived on the coast for a while.  I died a little every day.

I never fit in.  My accent never changed.  Even after 10 years of living there, people still asked me if I was "from up north".  I found myself smothering in the small-town mindset.  And I did the opposite of what I thought I would do.  At first, like I said, I tried desperately to fit in, then all pretense washed away.  You can take the girl out of NOLA (finish cliche' here).  The friends I did manage to make there always presented me with a disclaimer when meeting their other friends "Don't mind what she says, she's from New Orleans".

So what did I do?  Every chance I had I found myself running back home.  I missed the feel of the city, everything it had to offer.  There wasn't even a MOVIE THEATER where I lived, because the town couldn't sustain one.  I was living in a cultural cesspool.

I found that when I returned home for visits, I came alive again.  I went to concerts, roamed the Quarter and Downtown.  I gorged myself on food.  I smiled, a lot.

So, I packed it in, stopped pretending, and moved.  I found myself in the place where I belonged.  No more did I have to hide my ink, apologize for my accent or the fact that I seemed to think differently than everyone else.

What frustrated me most about living in southern MS was the fact that they claimed to embrace everything NOLA, but with their second face, would exclaim what a "dirty, corrupt" place it was and how MS was SO very much better.  Well, which is it, you can't have your king cake and eat it, too.  That drives me crazy about people, you can't claim to love something with exceptions, you either love it in totality, or you don't love it at all.  Because, simply, love requires totality.

I love my friends that live in MS, they are a spirited bunch.  I tell them all the time that I don't hold where they live against them, if they don't hold NOLA against me.  But, they come down here often, to escape the small town suffocation.  However, when I have to go to MS, I get in and get out as quickly as possible.

Hey, where you live is your choice.  If you are happy where you are, congrats, and I am happy for you.  But one thing I have noticed, and this applies more often than not, people leave NOLA, BUT, no matter how hard you scrub in the shower, you can't wash the city off of you.  I see over and over again, friends that I have known since childhood and that have moved away, lamenting and even mourning the parts of this city that make it different than anywhere else in the world.

I'm glad I'm home y'all.