Texas.

So, I was born in Birmingham, Alabama in November. Alabama is still in the south, so it wasn't freezing but Birmingham is northern Alabama, so it was pretty dang cold given that it was about a week before Thanksgiving when I made my worldly debut.

Karen and Mike spent another year in Birmingham before they hauled me out to Texas for the next two years (San Antonio and Grapevine). And I think that was where I fell in love. Okay, so maybe I was 2 and 3 years old and maybe I didn't really realize anything was different other than new neighbors and a new house. I did know that I had an awesome zoo where I lived and that my second Texas house was cool because I had a new little brother to share it with. After two years of Texas, my dad's job moved him to Franklin, Tennessee for a year before we bounced back to the town I currently live in. In Texas.

It's funny to think that I'm not a natural born Texan, but I completely consider myself one. I didn't consider applying to Alabama or Auburn for school. I'm not a Tennessee Titans fan. I'm a Rangers fan to the core. A tu hater without question. An devoted member of the fightin' Aggie class of 2015. The Dallas Cowboys aren't horrendous (but I'm not a pro-football or Jerry Jones kind of girl). I'm pumped the Mavs beat out the Heat, though I'm not a wild basketball fan. I am, through and through, a sports girl. I'm just kind of picky on where I put my passion.

I love the heat. I love being able to drive for hours and see how huge my state is. I love that I can go through hills and pines and desert and over rivers and wind through small towns. I love the old Texas highways that are four lanes and just go straight for miles. I love the simplicity of it all. I love seeing the Baptist churches that have been there for years upon years. I love looking at the scars of the past and being proud of how far we've come. I love Mom-and-Pop bakeries and family owned stores that have outlasted Wal-Mart.  I love being in the Bible Belt and wouldn't trade it for anything.

I love that it can be 104 degrees and then a summer storm blow in and the temperature drops and lightening strikes and the rain pelts the thirsty ground. And I love how it can go back to 104 a few hours after the storm. I love going out to the lake on those hot days and just floating, waving to the boats passing by and laughing at the easiness of it all. I love that it can stay in the 70s through September and October. I love it being 60 on my birthday. I love the feeling of running into a warm room when it's cold outside, though I don't love the cold. I love the first warm day of the year where you can put on shorts and still get goosebumps. I love seeing how Spring explodes overnight and you wake up one day and there's buds on the trees.

I love the Alamo and the Capitol. I love that we were once a country. I love being in the biggest state in the continental US. They were right when they said "Everything is bigger in Texas". Whoever "they" are. I love knowing that, if we wanted to, we could secede. Not that I'd ever want to (yikes); I just think it's cool that we've been our own country once and can do it again. (But, Rick Perry, please don't get any ideas.)

Why do you think I'm staying in Texas for school? I love that my university was the first public one in Texas and that it is 135 years old. I love that I can walk on the same streets that my great-grandfather walked on. I love that it isn't exceptionally beautiful but that it has character and is so alive. I love that Texas A&M is the essence of Texas.

So maybe I have a lot of state pride. But maybe I don't care what you think. Maybe I like being prideful in this great big space of heat. Maybe I like being a conservative Baptist who loves sports and country dancing. And maybe I did just buy a new pair of cowboy boots.

Let the armadillos roll, the boots fly, and the horses kick. Let the cities bustle and let the heat stay. Let me be an Aggie and let me be loud about it. Let me be obsessed with the Rangers and don't bother me when it comes to them. Let me stick to my Bible Belt roots.

Because, for better or worse, I am a Texan.