The Comfy Corner

Like the naive middle-class, half-Asian boy that I was, I grew up thinking that I lived in the trashiest town in the world. I thought that downtown Asheville was a bunch of dirty hippies that never washed their hair. In fact, I covered my food for fear of bugs jumping off their dreadlocks and onto my plate. I thought that Fairview (the smaller, less glamorous town where my house is) contained the most amount of rednecks per square mile than any other town in the world. And I thought, stupidly, that if I moved to the North, I would forever escape stupidity and poor driving. This weekend, it finally dawned on me how wrong I actually was.

I visited a little town called Beckley in a little state called West Virginia. It is important to note that I went to Beckley to escape the small town of White Sulphur Springs. Kevin and I needed to go to a movie theatre that showed more than one movie a week and Beckley was the closest metropolis. When we arrived, I was thrilled to spot a Chili's. Chili's and Chic-Fil-A are quite possibly my two favorite places in the world. When we walked in, however, I quickly realized that we were not going to blend in well. The eyes of West Virginian judgement stared right through my fitted blue H&M polo with white piping and right into my soul. The look in their eyes read, "Ya'll ain't from around these parts, are ya?" I felt a slight shudder of discomfort but I couldn't quite find the words to describe it. When we went to the movie theatre, though, I gazed at the poorly fitted pants draped around too-big waists. I gazed at greasy hair tied up in greasy pony tails. I gazed at all the "Tapout" shirts and zip-up hoodies wrapped around women with pores big enough to fry chicken in and I found the words that had previously slipped my mind: white trash. Kevin turned to me and said, "Can we go back to the car?" I nodded quickly because we weren't from around these parts.

When I drove back into the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, I realized that Asheville wasn't so bad after all. People here are sensible and dress decently. There is a manageable amount of Tapout clothing and most people bathe. For the first time in a long time, I felt at home in my home. And I realized that the North isn't so glamorous as I once thought. There are a lot of stupid people there too, they just have different accents. So next time I visit home, I will make sure to leave my judgement shoes at the door.