First blog post

First blog. First entry. Every blogger has their first. Mine happens to be today. 🙂 I love life, I love Nashville, and I love life in Nashville. I’m one of the few natives—there seemingly aren’t many of us here. I haven’t quite figured out if this town really is a launching pad for its homegrown, and a landing pad for newcomers, or if it’s just that we’re largely outnumbered by those who uproot from other cities and decide to put roots down here. But it’s the combination of the locals and the transplants that makes us uniquely us—so, I love all y’all. (As a native southerner, I admit I do use “y’all”, “I reckon”, and “bless your heart” regularly in conversation). Other than several years of my childhood spent living a few miles down 65S in the nearby town of Columbia (aka, the mule capital of the world), and a short stint living in South America, Nashville has always been home.

The risk of being a local is taking for granted all of the Music City attractions the tourists flock here to see and hear (and taste). Of course, we Nashvillians have our favorite spots that don’t necessarily make it on the visitor’s radar (e.g Baja Burrito and Phat Bites are my personal go-to restaurants here!). And we have the standard fare for large cities of beautiful parks, fun shopping, professional sports teams, major concert tours and great dining that can keep us all busy and content.

But for someone born and raised here, it took me way too long to finally make it out to America’s one and only, infamous Grand Ole Opry (even though I was right by it multiple times growing up since we regularly visited Opryland Theme Park as kids). I just always assumed I could and would make it there, so it was never a priority. But once I went for the first time last year, it felt like my soul fit there. You know that rare combination of a place and an experience that creates the perfect moment of happiness? That was me at the Opry. I’m not a musician, but music, especially live music, (and especially country music) delights my heart in a way nothing else does.

So, just over the past couple years, I’ve made a conscious decision to fully experience my hometown. I’m trying to make it to every music venue, every local coffee shop and brewery, to new restaurants (that is getting harder by the day to keep up with!), to various festivals and to all the within-driving-distance waterfalls (stretching a bit outside the city limits, but love the accessibility of the beautiful outdoors of middle TN!). I find myself wanting to share the joy of the things I love here, be it a walk at Radnor Lake, a cheeseburger at Puckett’s, or live Bluegrass at The Station Inn. Anyone who has been here for longer than a vacation has likely already experienced those gemstones of Nashville; but on the chance I can encourage or inspire anyone to more fully engage in the sights and tastes and sounds right outside your back door, then I’ll keep sharing what I find.

I know Nashville doesn’t need more hype. This will just be one girl’s story of being intentional about learning to bloom where she’s planted, and of somehow learning to know herself (and the God who always knew her) better, and to love life even more in the process.

Author: iloveallyallnashville

I know life is far from perfect, but I love living it. Our lives are often a mixture of beauty and pain, but I want to be intentional about experiencing what makes life beautiful. I love being from and living in Nashville; and in this season of life, I'm finding a lot of beauty in my own hometown--and I just love to share about it all :) View all posts by iloveallyallnashville