If a city could ask a question my hometown would ask the famous question: Can you groove to your own beat? Austin being the live music capital of the world glorifies individuality, appreciates the cross of urbanism and preserving nature, and always has room for a little more live music. Keep Austin Weird is a slogan for the city I’ve paraded my whole life, however you don’t need a tie dyed t-shirt with the slogan to infer that we Austinites may stand for something along those lines.

Memories of Austin come and go in my mind. Sitting in Zilker park on a quilt waiting for a band to come out, taking the pedicab down South Congress passing the Jamaican trash can drummers, getting ridiculously sunburned at the annual Kite Festival, spending 8 Dollars on a small wheat grass organic smoothie (while eating a funnel cake?). A liberal capital in the middle of a conservative Texas is a place where most any variety of people can be found.

Growing up in Austin has taught me how to be myself. How to appreciate nature without resenting the growing city that swallows it up. How to appreciate the music I don’t play, how to accept others as they are.