Reading a poem about Georgia today made me start thinking about what it is about this great state that I love so much. I realized that, short of my pride in my ancestry, the other thing that has made me most proud of myself throughout my life is the fact that I am a Georgian.

I have carried Georgia with me every where I've ever been in this great big world. I've carried Georgia through boot camp with Uncle Sam's Marines and into places I wish I had never been. I've carried Georgia to foreign lands and distant shores, above the Mason-Dixon and below the equator. I've carried Georgia around the world and eventually it brought me back home.

Yes, I am an American and better yet a Southerner, but best of all I am a Georgian. My bones are made of live oak, my muscles of red clay, my veins flow with Altamaha river water and my hair is Spanish moss. I was born in Georgia and by God's dear grace it is here where I shall die and spend eternity in the bosom of her soil.

My ancestors ran out the Spanish and the English and fought the Yankees to the end to preserve what they loved so much about her and to me they bequeathed that love for my heritage. Being a Georgian means something different to each on of us and we've all had our own experiences growing up here but there are some things many of us have shared such as:

• deep sea fishing off the Georgia coast...
  
• white water rafting on the rivers near Hiawassee...
  
• walking the battle field at Chickamauga or Kennesaw...
  
• enjoying a Braves game even in the "bad" years...
  
• hunting white tail deer in the middle Georgia woods...
  
• picking blackberries along a dirt road in SW Georgia...
  
• taking a pontoon boat out on Lake Lanier...
  
• taking your little girl to the Cabbage Patch Hospital in Cleveland to pick out and name her new baby...
  
• buying shrimp fresh off the boat in McIntosh County...
  
• pulling peanuts out of the dirt around Bainbridge...
  
• taking a boat through the Okefenokee Swamp...
  
• fishing for RedBreast on the Flint River...
  
• buying Vidalia onions straight from the field...
  
• going to the national fair in Perry...
  
• jumping across the Chattahootchee north of Helen...
  
• water skiing on the Chattahootchee near the Georgia-Florida-Alabama line...
  
• watching the Wild Hog Festival in Rochelle or the Rattle snake Roundup in Claxton...
  
• walking on the beach at St. Simons or Jekyll Island...
  
• Visiting Cypress Gardens...
  
• going to St. Patrick's Day in Savannah and partying on River Street...
  
• cutting down Cudzu in Forsyth County yesterday and waking up and finding it grown back today...
  
• seeing the carvings on Stone Mountain for the first time...
  
• watching the Dawgs play "between the hedges" at Athens...
  
• tubing on Lake Sinclair...
  
• visiting Tullulah Gorge...
  
• still holding Confederate Memorial Day ceremonies in most towns...
  
• attending the "big meeting" at a Hardshell church or mass at the Cathedral of St. John...
  
• welcoming home the soldiers at Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon or Fort Benning...
  
• seeing the wild horses on Cumberland Island...