Mississippi

 So I have spent the last two and half days here in Mississippi in this little town called Columbus. Man it is so crazy how different a place could be when you live in the same country. Some good and some bad. As soon as I got off the plane I thought I was going to die because it was so hot, like hot as I could barley open my mouth and breathe cause it hurt so bad. So I already knew that it was going to suck with my hair and that I probably shouldn't even put on makeup on because I would sweat so bad or do my hair because the humidity just made it curly. Second they have bugs I have never even heard of! In Utah we have ticks but they aren't that common, well here you have to watch out for them all the time. They also have like "deer flies" is what they called them and we they bit you if hurts. For those two reasons, I do not understand why people live down here! But I guess they get used to it and they probably don't know anything different. But the second day was the most eye opening. I wouldn't say that my family is super rich, but we do have nice things and are able to go do things. I grew up having really anything I wanted, but down here I would be classified as privilege just because of how poor it is down here. My dad's friends were telling us that more then half of them live on welfare and don't work which to me is crazy! There is a lot of African-American people who live down here but they are a ton of white people too. They would tell us how it is still kinda segregated which is mind blowing because I guess living in Utah you don't think that people are still like that but they are. And may I point out that I did not see one Hispanic person. So people were giving my dad such weird looks. Our last name is Martinez, but I really don't look that Hispanic but my dad does. Apparently not a lot of people graduate high school which is weird because I used to think that basically everyone does. This trip really made my look into my life and made me realize just how lucky I am. It makes me so grateful that I had the opportunity to not only go to high school and graduate but to go to college.

 I love history, and Columbus has such rich history. (everywhere in the south does) The town was a hospital town back during the Civil war, so it wasn't burned down during the war. So there are buildings that date back before the Civil war. When you go down the old main street you can still see all the old hospitals. Fun fact the first memorial day was celebrated in Columbus! These ladies went and decorated all the graves of the confederate army but also the union soldiers which I think is amazing! So we got to go see a lot of the graves and most of the confederate soldiers were unknown which is just so sad to think that they lives were just forgotten and no one really went looking for them or it was just too hard. Tonight we went to like the best restaurant, which obviously they had a lot of fried chicken. But it was amazing, definitely not like food in Utah.

"Friendship cemetery"

Old Main Street