Before going to Appalachia over fall break, I wasn’t sure what to think about the region and the people. I was born in North Carolina and moved to northern Indiana at age 7 – needless to say, I didn’t get much long-term exposure to the southern region after that, although my mom’s family is primarily from the south. Every year we would go to Fall Creek Falls National Park in Tennessee for a family reunion on a camping trip. The trip was great every year, we always had tons of fun. But the people around me had always been my family – not exactly Appalachian natives. I never really got their side of the story or their perspective on life simply because I wasn’t exposed to the people. What I did see, however, were beautiful mountains, forests, rivers. We would spend the weekend hiking and swimming and just enjoying the scenery. I wanted to do ASPI specifically because it was a site focused on the environment. I wanted to learn more about where I was spending a weekend every summer.
Other than my first-hand experience in the region, I also got some information about Appalachia from other sources. There’s just the general stereotype throughout our society here in the “North” about southerners – that they’re uneducated, inbred, unhygienic, and poor. Not one of my friends actually enjoys Southern music or movies. I felt as though the South was kind of the unwanted region of America – nobody really appreciated it, unless they were an Appalachian. That whole region, in my opinion, is forgotten about.
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