I recently been on a trip that travelled far out of my normal zone of Vancouver Canada. I traveled with 17 classmates and 4 teachers to the Deep South of the United States. Through the four states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee we followed the civil rights movement, it’s relation with music and stories of resilience and overcoming adversity.

I reviewed the trip itinerary in class a few days ago and pulled out the experiences that really resinated with me. Here is the list I compiled. CNN, Driving around, Selma (tour & city), Boys & Girls club, Elvis (Graceland & Sun Studios) Fried Chicken and MLK’s death place. I will be reflecting and remembering the trip in this blog post.

CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. I have always been a pretty sheltered deep cove kid and I am so happy I’ve grown up in such a special and beautiful place. But this year I’ve started to follow world news. I’ve kinda started to like knowing what’s happening around the world and being educated. So visiting CNN was pretty wild, I got to see the production insides of an amazing news station. It was also really crazy seeing the crazy equipment that is so expensive and helps create such a great show.

Driving though all four states. The Deep South was so different. Like so different worldly different that I couldn’t not be looking around at all times. I looked around in awe about 90% of trip just observing the different world around me. It’s so great that I get to travel at my age, I’m so grateful that I experienced the true south and could feel the real history around me. If I had to chose I would say that Mississippi was my favourite state. Mostly because it was the most green and reminded me of my time camping in the BC wilderness.

Selma Experience. Selma was exactly that, an experience that I will never forget. Selma was the first place that I really felt like we weren’t in a city, we were in a community. The tour that Joanne Bland was amazing and eye opening. It’s very moving to tour such a powerful place and be told the stories by someone so involved. Selma was also special in the way that it felt small and historical, I really felt like I was in the south down in Selma. The dinner with the history makers was also crazy special.

The boys and girls club of America. Spending time with real southern kids was a treat. I met a boy in fifth grade named AJ, I spent a couple hours with him having a good time. We talked about food and sports and that kind of stuff. It’s wild to realize how different their lives are then ours. I had a great time with AJ building with lego, playing tennis and bonding over eating.

Elvis. Many hours of the trip were spent focusing on Elvis. And this was great for me, I love music and my love for Elvis grows every day. I enjoy his music even though I didn’t grow up in his timeline. His music is so impactful and famous that it wasn’t possible to marvel at Graceland and sun studios. My little big story 1 was on the topic of: Elvis combined white country music and black blues music into his own vocals, which in turn brought white and black people together. So all the Elvis time was great and really special.

Fried Chicken. Of the meals that were consumed on the trip I’d say a good 60% of them were fried chicken. And I love me some friend chicken. The crispy and tasty chicken is making my mouth water as I am writing this. Legendary southern fried chicken is quite…… legendary.

The Loraine Motel. By far the most powerful place I visited on the whole trip was the Lorraine Motel. Being that close to the assassination place of one of the most important men of all time is so crazy. Seeing those un-touched rooms was a trip into the past and really improved my understanding and made me feel closer to MLK then I ever had before.

To conclude, my trip to the south was amazing, I had so much fun and experienced tons of things. There were so many notable moments that I can recall I can’t do the trip justice in a blog post.