A couple of months ago I entertained thoughts of maybe going to Spain this summer, Salamanca, to finish up my dreaded foreign language requirements. I got all fired up and motivated and thought, for a few days, that I had the courage to leave my comfortable little nook in O'town. You can do it, Moses, it'll be a good chance to see the world, I thought to myself.
But then I got to thinking about fishing with Big Pa, my grandfather, on a little lake he's got in Holly Springs. We always return there every summer for countless long afternoons of meaningless conversation, casting for bass, coming up with endless excuses to why we aren't catching anyway or going on and on about why we are. And then heading for the house to wolf down hamburger steaks prepared by my grandmother, with onions and gravy on top, always dining on the back porch watching an eight o' clock sun say good night.
And the Spain excursion left my mind as quickly as it had entered it.
Then I considered going up east to intern at an outdoors magazine. I told myself it would be a great experience and definitely juice up my less than stellar resume, probably would help me get a good job after graduation next year. Again my parents approved of my plan. We're proud of you John, planning for your future, they told me sincerely.
I called them back the next day and told my mom that last night I got to thinking about swimming with my yellow lab at Sardis and playing a quick nine holes in the late evening at University and sitting on the Grocery porch on Wednesday afternoons.
"I guess the magazine idea is already out the window," she said.
She was right.
So now I've come to terms with myself. I'm a homeboy and I've accepted it. This place has latched on to me somewhere down deep, and I'm seeing no indications of it letting go anytime soon.
So all you folks, you know who you are, headed to the wilderness of Alaska, to Sun Valley, Idaho, to Destin, to Hilton Head, to South Africa, to D.C. and anywhere else the road might take y'all, please think about me while you face your adventures.
But don't pity me too much.
I'm right where I want to be.
John Moses is a junior English major from Memphis.