Like most Southerners, I pride myself from being from the South. Some of the best things come out of our neck of the woods. If you are lucky enough to live here, be thankful. If you haven't experienced the South, this will make you want to.

1. We have the best food

From biscuits and gravy to chicken strips and mashed potatoes, our food cannot be beat.

2. We have the best accents

Our accents can make almost any sentence sound good. Y'all and fixin’ are a normal part of our vocabulary, and it's hard not to love it. Don’t be surprised if we create our own contractions like y'all’ll when we are trying to say “y'all will."

3. We love country music, but we can get down to anything

Tim McGraw and George Strait will always be the greats, but if need be we can learn to love anything that we can dance to.

4. We are never without anything to do

A lot of us are from small towns, meaning that we can have fun with whatever we’ve got. Give us a field and a bonfire and we are good to go.

5. We love football

If it’s a weekend, you can bet that we are somewhere watchin’ the game. We love a good football game and friendly competition, but don’t go trash talking our teams or we may have to “bless a few hearts."

6. Most of us have great manners

We were raised on ma’am and sir, and we will call everyone by these names. We are respectful and we know what our mamas expect from us.

7. We make friends easily

We are very friendly people. It doesn’t take much to connect with a Southerner and once you do, you’ll be friends for life.

8. Our pets are family

We most likely will refer to any of our animals as our children. Whether that be a dog or a horse it's probably our “baby."

9. It’s OK to drink from the water hose

On a hot day you might just see some of us in the yard sippin’ some water from the water hose. Believe it or not, its better that way.

10. We love our country

We love America, and we don't wait until the Fourth of July to show how patriotic we are.

11. People underestimate our intelligence, which gives us the chance to surprise them

Being from the South tends to lead people to believe we may be stupid. Just give us a few minutes, and you won't mistake our cute accents and cowboy boots for stupidity again. There have been very successful people come from the south. We can be pretty darn impressive.