As a native I happen to know some facts about Texas – it’s illegal to pick bluebonnets, we have both arid and humid climates, and we’re the second largest state area-wise. We’re also the only state that was once its own nation which fought for and won its independence.

People love Texas, that’s just a fact. And everyone has a different reason why  – the Tex-Mex, wildflowers, open air, friendly people or high school football. But for most, the loyalty is indescribable; an intangible thing that you have to born with to understand. It becomes almost a tradition to have a love affair with the Lone Star state, I know my mother and grandparents were born and raised here and would never leave; for them it’s got it all.

I’m proud to be a part of the Lone Star State. During the summertime my dad and I take a two- week long road trip to Minnesota to visit family. It seems that no matter how many times I tell them, they never remember that in Texas we may have rode horses, owned property, worked on a farm, wore cowboy hats and boots at one time, but that’s not the case for many of us anymore.

Sometimes it isn’t fair how we Texans get stereotyped for something that our ancestors did, but the more I think of it the more I realize that it gives us a distinguishing character trait. I bet if you asked someone in a different country where Texas was they would know. Can Ohio say that? New Hampshire? What’s Idaho got – potatoes?

My favorite thing about Texas is the fact that it’s a melting pot of different cultures. Because Texas was founded by so many different groups of people, Spanish, French, Native American, I’ll always find someone interesting to talk to with a story that is all their own, with an amazing heritage that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the country.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m proud to be from such culturally rich state. I may get stereotyped, but at least people know I’m a Texan.­­