There’s something about growing up in Southwest Georgia, whether you’re an only child who comes from parents who were only children, or if your parents were both from large families and they and their siblings also decided to have large families of their own (as is my case), here in this club, we’re all family.

This can be something that you absolutely love, or that you hate. I’m pretty sure in my lifetime, I have bounced between that feeling many, many times. I grew up with many “aunts and uncles”. I didn’t know that they weren’t actually related to me until I was nearly grown. I had an “Uncle Harold” that I knew wasn’t my dad’s brother, but I didn’t know he wasn’t actually related to me until I was nearly grown. I never had the opportunity to know my actual grandparents. All but one passed away before I was born, and the surviving grandmother passed away when I was five years old.

We grow up in small towns, with tight knit communities, and we all know each other. If someone needs something, and you have it, you help them. It’s wired into us from birth. It is something that I have always, 110%, loved about this place. And it’s something that I realized you simply do NOT get everywhere.

In my nearly 40 years on this earth, I have lived many places. I was brought home from a tiny hospital in Cuthbert, Georgia to a community called “County Line”. Our address was technically Lumpkin, but going to town was a drive that took about ten minutes. Because “life was lifing”, before I reached adulthood, I also lived in Shellman and Dawson.

At the age of 18, I moved to the “city”- Albany, Georgia. Life experience has taught me that it’s really not the big city that my brain thought it was at that age, but I didn’t know it then. From there I moved to different states and lived in and around Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then in and around Indianapolis, Indiana. Moving back to Georgia, I lived in more small towns and I guess maybe cities- Americus, Columbus, Weston, and Richland.

In all of this time, my family has grown. Yes, I got married, had kids, and I have in-laws, but really, it’s that tight-knit community of people around me that I am referring to. We end up with so many people that become integral parts of our lives, and although we may not share DNA, we realize that life just would not be the same without them, so we just adopt them and now our kids have new aunts and uncles that they know aren’t your biological siblings, but they know they’re who they call if they need something.

I know this is what most people call friends, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not just friends. Maybe the heat of the southwest Georgia sun and the humidity works some magic and creates a bond stronger than DNA, but something happens. I can’t explain it, but I have always known that there are certain people that will always be there for me, no matter what the problem. And there are people that if they called me in the middle of the night and ask to borrow a shovel, I might come cussing up a storm, but I’m bringing two shovels so that I can help them dig their way out of whatever mess they’ve landed themselves in. Because, here in the clerb, we all fam.