Why I love Florida

Florida is unlike any other state I know. It's nothing but a big flat sandbar that's mostly water. Hurricanes barely recognize it as a land mass. Everything is made out of cement. There's Disney, palm trees, sharks, manatees, citrus and sinkholes. Go north and you're in the deep south. Go south and you may as well be in Cuba. It's a diverse mix of rednecks, retired people, foreigners and transplanted northerners. You never know where you'll find an alligator. Election scandals and other stupid things. Tropical rain bursts that remind me of Costa Rica. Suffocating humidity that reminds me of West Africa. Native Americans who made up words like Withlacoochee, Okeechobee and Ichitucknee. Early pioneers were called Crackers. Miles and miles of coastline. These are just a few of the things that make Florida unique, and that's why I love it.