I Love You, Tuscaloosa
An EF-4 tornado tore through our town the evening of April 27, 2011; today marks its two year anniversary and I want to reflect on the reasons why I am proud to call The City of Champions my home. I hope these words mean as much to you as they do to me.
I love you, Tuscaloosa. You are beautiful.
Beautiful in a thousand ways, like refracted beams of light dancing at sunset on the Black Warrior River. Beautiful like dogwoods blooming near the Old Capitol. Beautiful like the night sky, lit up and electric: Bryant-Denny, the center of the universe on a Saturday night.
And the faces, the beautiful faces of beautiful people, formed to make the city I am proud to call my home. Tuscaloosa has always been beautiful.
When I say "The Storm," you know what I mean: a phrase heavy with the weight of broken homes, broken branches, broken hearts. The storm took a lot of things from you, Tuscaloosa, but you are still beautiful.
When I was a young girl, I had an operation that left me with a big, bright red scar. I remember lamenting that scar and thinking I was forever tarnished. My mother assured me I was still pretty; she said, "You are not beautiful despite this scar. You are beautiful because of it."
That is you, Tuscaloosa, infinitely more beautiful because of your scars. The storm did not break you. You shook off the rubble, brushed off the red dirt, and stood tall, ready to face another day.
That scar aches from time to time, the pain of a wound that may never fully heal. But you don't let it stop you. You keep going, keep growing: mended rooftops, fresh paint, brand-new buildings for brand-new businesses.
A beautiful future and a beautiful past--Tuscaloosa, you have it all.
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