I pretended to like country music so I wouldn’t get punched

When I finally got to the end of the yellow brick road that is the college admission process and it turned out I’d be going to school down South, I was a little nervous.

When my high school counselor asked me where I was looking to go to college – and she can quote me on this – I told her, “anywhere but the South.” I’m a tree-hugging, chia-seed-açai-smoothie-drinking New Englander who listens to electronic trap remixes of Justin Bieber songs. So yeah, I was pretty certain I didn’t belong in the South.

My parents literally told me before leaving for college: “Em, just don’t tell people that you don’t like country music. Let’s just say you won’t make many friends that way.” I have to say, I was genuinely shocked that they were concerned I wouldn’t make any friends in Tennessee without a true passion for Brad Paisley or Blake Shelton.

It wasn’t that I refused to appreciate the entire genre of music dedicated to NASCAR, fried chicken and Chevy Silverados, I just hadn’t grown up hearing it. So, when it did come on the radio and didn’t sound anything like the Kanye West, Taylor Swift, or One Direction I’d grown up listening to, I was confused.

For years, I’d been trained to whine and groan whenever someone turned on country music in the car until the radio station was promptly changed. I couldn’t help that I’d grown up in a world where yoga, pilates, latte and kale were the only vocabulary words I needed to know to fit in. I knew nothing about BBQ, pickup trucks, the SEC, or how often to use the term “y’all” without getting called out for being from Connecticut.

Luckily, I wound up at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. As far as Southern culture goes, Nashville is like southern-lite. Like any popular city, it’s filled with people from all over the place. It’s got just about as many hipsters as it does traditional Southern folk. Knowing this, it was silly for me to have worried that everyone within the city limits prayed to the altar of country music.

I thought that the South was an exclusive club that I’d never have a chance of getting into. In fact, it’s really just a few states that are a little closer to the equator than the tiny one I grew up in.

I thought knowing all the lyrics to your favorite Tim McGraw song was a requirement for living down there. Not only was I absurdly wrong, but I had no idea that it’d be where I’d end up finding some of the most like-minded people I’d ever met in my life.

After living for a year in Nashville, I’m now able to listen to country music in the car without fear of being judged or punched. Now that I’ve got a reason to listen to it, being a 4-year Tennessee resident and all, I feel like I’m allowed to enjoy it for all it’s worth.

Even if half of the lyrics include words I never use in day to day life, like “pecan pie,” “tractor,” and “moonshine,” I figure it’s about time to add a few new words to my vocabulary anyway.