The Southern Education of a Jersey Girl by Jaime Primak Sullivan

Author:Jaime Primak Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

“THESE ARE NOT MY PEOPLE”

Michael and I decided that early August would be good for the move because that would give me enough time to pack up my business and my apartment and my life and get across the continent. I was finally getting used to the idea that my life was going to change, although it was all still theoretical in my mind. Michael and I were getting along so well that I was becoming more and more ready to take the leap.

Michael did all the manly things you would expect. He hired movers, made all the arrangements, and flew out to LA to drive me back “home.” But although I was game and kept my chin up and put on a good face and all those clichés of the optimist, part of me was still having a silent and well-hidden panic attack. As I smiled and packed and planned and informed everyone, inside, I kept thinking, What the fuck did I get myself into? There’s so much I haven’t done yet with my life.

It’s very hard to decide to cast aside the life you built for yourself, and it’s even harder to turn your happiness over to someone else. I have always been an independent person, yet there I was, planning to build a brand-new life around somebody else’s already established life. It wasn’t like we were both starting something new together and building from the ground up. We were coming together in his world, surrounded by his family, his upbringing, his memories, his culture, his possessions. And I was about to barge in, in all my Jersey glory, and try to make myself at home in the land of debutantes and mint juleps and cucumber sandwiches? I had a hard time even imagining how it would ever work, and I felt lost. How would I find myself again in Alabama? How would I reinvent my life? How would I make my own friends, find my own joy, or be my own person, as Mrs. Michael Sullivan? I didn’t want Michael to feel like he had to entertain me all the time, but what was I going to do? I had no job, no purpose, not even any really close friends. No family. Michael was it. He would be my everything, at least for a while. It was terrifying—for both of us, even though we didn’t talk about it.

And so, we set out, from Los Angeles, Michael cheerful and optimistic, and me, filled with trepidation and anxiety. Michael drove (both literally and figuratively), and as we crossed the city limits out of LA, I looked out the window and mentally said good-bye. I had a sinking feeling that only got deeper and darker as we passed the California state line and headed southeast.

The states that you go through to get from California to Alabama are Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. To Michael, this was incredibly interesting. He had only flown over or into these states before, and now he was getting to experience that journey to his homeland in a more real way—on the road.

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