• My Florida: Elizabeth Bland

    When asked to finish the sentence, “My Florida is _____.” I initially struggled. Is it an actual location? Is it an area? Am I restricted from claiming a certain place as “My Florida” because I was not originally born there? Can I only claim the Jacksonville area because that is my birthplace? Clearly the ending to that statement did not come as easy to me as I thought it would. I have thought about an answer to this question for a several weeks now. My Florida is not white, sandy, freshly raked beaches with well-groomed palm trees. It is dirt roads, river swamps, old oak hammocks, and coastlines that have…