My favorite places

I have three favorite places in this world, at least so far. I haven't seen enough of the world to claim this is anything more than a temporary list, and I'm sure I'll be adding and moving and modifying and changing, but these three places have been my favorites for a good little while now, so here they are for your enjoyment.

Auburn, AL: I love this place. I love it for its beauty. I love it for its tradition. I love it for the place it will forever hold in my heart, as the home of my alma mater, my first love, and my transformation from (awkward) shy little caterpillar to (still-awkward) semi-social butterfly. Most of all, though, I love it for its small-town, family feel. People smile and say hello (or, more often, War Eagle) when you pass. I love it for the fact that everything I want is here. Auburn can be crazy - just come spend an odd Thanksgiving weekend here, when we host the University of Alabama for the infamous Iron Bowl rivalry. Let me just assure you, from six years of experience: it gets insane. But it can be calm, too, when most of the students leave for breaks. Either way, Auburn is, hands-down, my favorite place to be.

New York City, NY: I really don't like big cities, but New York is a different sort of monster. The first time I went, I hated it. I mean, I HATED it. I never wanted to come back to the City. Compared to the huge, sprawling, insane mass of this strange place, I felt insignificant and small, and infinitely more like a small-town country girl than I truly am. I spent most of the afternoon, that first time, crying as I walked around, trying my best to not get separated from my family. Lemme just tell ya: Keeping seven people together in the crowds in NYC the week before New Years? Not the easiest task, that. Last year, I'd resigned myself to the fact that, in the City That Never Sleeps, you have to stand up for yourself and not be bullied and buffeted around, and sometimes your big group is gonna get separated. With those revelations, and with some time spent there not-crying, I realized that the living, breathing mass of NYC is not nearly so frightening as I'd found it before. I've started discovering myself feeling nostalgic, and wondering how difficult it would really be to just pack up and go on a whim. (I must confess, this feeling of nostalgia comes most often when I open up a round of Thomas bagels, and realize that there's no way something from the miscellaneous-baked-goods aisle could ever live up to real, freshly-made New York bagels and schmear.)

Panama City Beach, FL: Full disclosure: I really don't like Panama City Beach. I'm a reader, not a partier, so the whole party mentality in PCB just doesn't do it for me. I don't care about Spring Break (I go home to be with my family), and I sure don't care about who's playing La Vela. But the beaches, those sugar-sand beaches so emblematic of the Florida Panhandle, are some of the most beautiful in the world. Destin and Panama City, and the beaches along Scenic 30-A between the two, all have the white-sugar sand that squeaks when you walk, and water so clear you can see your toes even when you're up to your neck. The view from the Lagoon at Edgewater Beach Resort is one of the best you'll ever see, and there's never been a reason not to go up 30-A, even if I can't afford to stay there. My end goal in life, aside from years (not just one, but as many as I can afford) spent exploring, is to become a beach bum with a house somewhere in one of the little beach communities along 30-A, so I can sit there on my Mac and blog and write stories and never have to leave the beach if I don't want to.

I'm sure, if my year(s) happen, more places will vie for spots on this list, but - for now, at least - these are the top three.