Who Am I?

After recently attending my 50-year high school reunion, I find myself again considering my own identity. Who am I, and where have I come from? In writing group today, the word drawn was "aware," and the item was a red clayish stone


I am newly aware of who I am, and where I come from--Appalachia. The red stone makes me think of Appalachia. I've lived in several parts of the country during my lifetime. I grew up in Oak Ridge, TN (Appalachia), attended two years of college in Southwest Virginia (still Appalachia). Over the years I lived for three years in Seattle (Pacific Northwest), five years in Knoxville (East Tennessee again), two years in Idaho (Palouse wheatfields), and two months in Tucson, AZ (desert Southwest). The rest of my time has been in Nashville. I've lived through the end of World War II, Korean War, Viet Nam War and its protests, Civil Rights years, Desert Storm years, right up to the present times of turmoil and political bickering. (I no longer watch television, but get my current events from the newspaper. TV news makes my stomach hurt.)

Through my life I've been a student, a secretary, an administrator, a graduate student, a minister, and a retiree/part-time library tech. I've been a wife, mother, grandmother, and now a single woman on my own. I've taken piano lessons, art class, weaving class, been a stitcher and am now trying to write. I'm sure there have been other interests that I'm forgetting.

I just got back from my 50-year high school reunion in Oak Ridge, and now am plunged back into Appalachian literature and folk culture. Another time of transition begins. Who do I want to be this time around? We'll see. A "hippie hillbilly" sounds pretty good.

Some of us have more history than others. At our core, we don't really change, but how we view ourselves does. (Thanks, Ellen.)