Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Moved To Texarkana

I had no idea how bad the air smelled. Between the Sulfur River, two paper mills nearby and some stinky food processing plant of some kind that is east of town, the smell can be horrendous.

I had no idea how many different kinds of cockroaches there were until I lived in a rent house surrounded by pine trees. I was standing on my porch talking on the phone when a flying cockroach landed on my chest. I looked like I had been knocked backward by a professional boxer. I threw my phone and my beverage in two different directions as I slammed against my front door screaming. I had nightmares for weeks after that day. I also had no idea that cockroaches could bite you. At the same house I was walking from my car to the house and by the time I got into the bathroom I felt something in my shoe biting me. At that point, I couldn’t run. It was frightening.

Things are much slower in the south. People like to beat around the bush a lot with chit chat and I am a "just the facts" type of person. If you ask a question in the south, the answer may take five minutes and go down several rabbit trails. If you ask the same question in the northern states, you get the answer in 30 seconds or less. This has been a very difficult adjustment for me.

Allergies used to be something that I only dealt with in the months of October and April. Now, I deal with allergies every single day. I lived in the desert where there weren’t many trees. Here, the trees are everywhere and I am apparently allergic to all of them. The grass stays greener here longer than where I came from and I have discovered that I am allergic to all types of grass, too. It seems I am allergic to everything green.

Road rage in the south gets way too personal. If you honk at someone, they are liable to stop in the middle of the road and get out to see what the problem is. Where I came from, the worst response you would get would be a sign that you were number one and everyone goes on about their day. People would have complete conversations with their hands outside of the car window.