Back In Nashville

Coming home to Nashville was surprising to me. To be somewhere comfortable again is more than I can ask for. Now with a new outlook and eye I see many parts of it that I have previously looked over.

Before we left I rarely considered Nashville’s identity besides music city. After traveling across America and studying the American identity I see that it says a lot more about our culture. Nashville surprises me with its inaccessible public transportation compared to cities like Boston, NYC, Chicago, or Washington D.C. Something about this lack of transit makes it smaller now and more compact.

Another part of Nashville that surprises me and one I never noticed is the small-town feel of it. I love that sense that it is not too big to make a name in. Nor is it hard to live really close to downtown without living in shambles and paying a ton for very little.

Driving down the strip (yea driving again!) I giggled at the country music souvenirs and tourists. For some reason I have always avoided the Broadway strip because I had very little reason to go there. I have not been there but maybe a handful of times and definitely never brought a visitor there. It doesn’t scream my life in Nashville to me.

But what does it say if I don’t see Nashville as a tourist place where I should wear boots and a cowboy hat? Also, what does it mean that I have not visited the main area where tourists go? I think it means that the true city or place where we live is not a moneymaker but it is not a special attraction.

I believe Matt Burchett put it best when he described cities as being like teenagers in high school. They don’t really know who they are and maybe don’t even care. As long as people like them as the person they portray that’s all that matters. Now I see Nashville as the slightly emo kid in a Southern school.

I always liked that kid!!!