I was born here in Atlanta, and lived most of my life in the backwoods of North Georgia, among the rednecks and deer hunters, the likes of which you might find on “Here comes Honey Boo Boo”.
I rejected the hillbilly culture I was raised in because I hated the machismo and stupidity of my peers, I rejected my parent’s culture because they were such devout christians that I didn’t get to play games or watch modern cartoons (that’s how satan gets you), the generalized American culture disgusts me, and I rejected the culture of Atlanta when I moved here because I felt like a man with my priviledge didn’t belong to a place where murals of civil rights leaders are plastered like monuments to heroes, or to a city called “hotlanta” for its parties when I don’t want to participate in them.
My personal culture is something new, and perhaps unique. I don’t have any traditions (I truly dislike holidays, family gatherings, and religious events), I don’t go out except to buy food or supplies, and occasionally to do something like a date. I don’t have a religion, and I’m not in any minority groups. I don’t play video games or watch television, and I don’t care about anything except that I have rent paid and food to eat. I just go to work and school, and hang out with my roommates while pretending to understand the memes, politics, sports, and tv shows they incessantly talk about.
What I can say about this personal culture is that it is carefree. I happily accept any situation, no matter how strange or hard it might make my life. I care not for materialism, nor asceticism. Above all, I seek knowledge and understanding, and apply what I learn to my personal culture whenever I see something that I believe will make me a better person.
Thanks for reading,
Caleb Lloyd
Thanks for sharing- you have an interesting story. It seems to me that rejecting your “hillbilly” culture, you parent’s Christian culture, your city’s culture, and your friend’s culture in order to find yourself is an accomplishment- and that’s wonderful. It’s interesting that by doing so you seemingly created your own culture and started to define your identity. Wanting to seek knowledge, understanding, become a better person, and have the freedom to create your own culture is an important duty that anyone should be able to do.
This brings up my question- when reading your story I couldn’t help but notice something that I was slightly confused about. One of the reasons you rejected the culture of Atlanta was because we treat our Civil Rights leaders like heroes. Are they not heroes? They did exactly what you did, but on an infinitely larger scale, and with death on the line as a punishment. Shouldn’t everyone have to freedom to create their own culture and embrace their identity like you do now? If it weren’t for them, you might not have even had the opportunity to be who you are today.
It seems a tad bit hypocritical to me that you don’t embrace the culture of “Hotlanta” when the city is an epitome of what you believe in. This is a city that went through hundreds of years of identity crisis, literally rose from the ashes, had fearless leaders pave the way so we can have the freedom to build our own identity sounds strangely familiar to someone’s story that I just read…
Atlanta is an amazing city – I hope one day you give yourself the opportunity to identify with it’s culture, and embrace it’s past, present, and future.
One thing that caught my attention while reading your post is the sentence, “…I felt like a man with my priviledge didn’t belong…” could you explain what you mean by that? Are you referring to how your parents raised you religiously and you’re rejecting certain aspects of Atlanta because it conflicts with those values your parents reinforced? Since you feel that you don’t belong to a certain culture how do you view other people embracing Atlanta’s culture?