From the Peach State to the Big Apple Rebecca van Laer

>From the Peach State to the Big Apple

by, Rebecca van Laer

September 1, 2003

<b><i>Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, or risk that you have taken and its impact on you.

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By the time I was fourteen, I finally knew that "ya'll" was the appropriate way to address my classmates, that "ma'am" was the way to address all women over 18, and that criticizing the Baptist faith made one a Satanist. After years of life in Georgia, I did not always adhere to standards of etiquette, but I grasped them. I was also accustomed to the lifestyle. Time always seemed to move slowly, probably because of the oppressive heat=2E The languid mood affected the entire school system. It took years to understand geometric proofs, and millennia to learn declensions in Latin. With the pace so painfully slow, I skidded through school with ease. My peers quickly picked up on this oddity. With the "Yankee accent" I had retained from my childhood in New York and the liberal views I had inherited from my parents, I was bound to stand out. Nonetheless, my classmates chose to accept me, and my eccentric wardrobe and lack of enthusiasm for the Atlanta Braves ceased to be issues. In...