When I started looking at colleges I knew without a doubt in my mind that I wanted to go south. I looked at schools in Alabama, NorthCarolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. I was born and raised in central New Jersey, and while my heart belongs to my home state, all of my friends in high school always said I was a southerner at heart. When I was accepted into Texas Christian University, there were no surprises to anyone when that is where I enrolled.

I just finished up my first semester and to this day, I still experience some type of culture shock everyday. The thing that still shocks me everyday is that the south is slower than the north. In New Jersey everything we do is fast paced, we have little patience and huge attitudes, and we are the state with the worst road rage (it’s a fact I read it somewhere).

The other thing that shocked me was that everyone. Is. So. Nice. Living in the north I had heard of the elusive “southern hospitality”, but I had never had the chance to experience it. Everyone smiles and asks you how you are doing, and they genuinely mean it, it’s not a polite gesture. People watch where they are going and do not walk into you on the side walk and they hold doors open. I volunteered at a food bank, and every volunteer there with me was so excited to be there and to be able to help people get food for the holidays. I helped in a preschool and the little kids called me “Ms. Sarah” and “ma’am.” I’m still shocked everyday at how nice everyone is to each other.

It’s not that the north is mean; people hold doors here and wave and smile and do polite little gestures. But it’s different. Down south people are apologetic, they care about their actions and the repercussions that the actions have. A few days ago, I visited New York City with my family to go to a show and lunch. Growing up an hour from NYC and Philly, we’ve done things like this my whole life; the bustle and busyness of the city is not a surprise to me. However, this time I noticed some things that surprised me. When we first stepped onto the street, a car drove by at a rather fast speed, splashing me, my family, and some other walkers with cold, gross, New York City street snow slush. While this surprised me, what shocked me more was the group of other people standing near us who ran after the car screaming profanities, in front of some very small children.

I am not saying that this scenario wouldn’t happen in the south, I’m saying that people are just nicer to you down there. Once you get past the culture shock of everyone being polite and pleasant, it’s something that you can appreciate and enjoy.