TYLER TYACK, Freshman criminal justice major

Let me first clarify the title. I’m from Massachusetts, a little north of Boston, home to that iconic accent. The first question I get when I tell people where I’m from is “What brings you down here?” So I tell about how in 2009, my grandparents bought a summer home in Savannah, and I came to visit with them that summer. It was really the first time I had spent an extended period of time outside of Massachusetts, and I loved it. The city, the weather, and the people, it was all so new to me. Pretty much every year since, I came down as a tourist, and I was always enthralled with this foreign land.

Now, I have come south as a resident. I bid goodbye to the Great Green Commonwealth, and said hello to Georgia. I call this place my home now, and really, it’s the only one I have. My parents moved to Michigan after my high school graduation, and my grandparents are selling their house back in the Bay State. I have a lot of work to do before I become a real Georgian, but I thought it might be interesting to display how beautiful this state is to me.

I’ll begin with the people. Everyone is so kind. Just Monday morning, I was looking at the campus map at the Student Union, and I engaged in a full conversation with a stranger. In Massachusetts, when you talk to someone, you either know them, or have business with them. You aren’t able to have a discussion with a stranger in the grocery store up north without looking like a total loon. I’ve said these things to a few native friends I have here, and they both looked at me like I was nuts. All the same, I now know how truly welcoming Southern Hospitality really is.

As I write this, I hear another difference in the air; aircraft. I absolutely love the sound of the military planes, fighters, and helicopters overhead. Again, my friends think I must have lived under a rock, but this feeling of security doesn’t exist in Hamilton, Massachusetts. When you hear a low flying aircraft up there, it’s because A) some idiot on I-95 didn’t use his blinker and caused an eight car pileup, or B) something is very, very wrong. It’s always cool to me to see those big, steel eagles in the sky, and no matter how long I stay here, I’ll probably keep looking up when I hear one.

There’s so much more I could write about; the words you all (yall) use down here that differ from up in New England, or that the weather is always comfortable (meaning above 45 degrees). But this is just a glimpse of what there is for me to experience about Georgia, Savannah, and Armstrong. I wanted to say thank you to everyone here, and am proud to call myself a Pirate.