Plain grilled cheese and mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes with corned beef hash, left over rice the next day with milk and sugar, sitting on the front porch drinking ice tea late into the sunset. From my roots I may have found some form of gentility and grace and even discovered I like fine things as well. But yes, I am still that girl grown in the seventies when times were not always so good and we would wait in line for gas, when the city had more country close by and there were no pit stops on the highway, you drove straight through. I may have learned proper diction and poise, but that is only my southern self, my southern voice, smooth and languid, sensual and pleasing to even my own ears. That I have come into my own is a surprising thing and one in which I revel. Knowing myself so completely is what allows me to bring a sense of awe to everyday, to laugh in my giggle-box way, and to face each day bright-eyed with hope.