Living in the Low Country is absolutely different from living anywhere else. Growing up in this region of the South hardly has its dull moments, if you take advantage of all the Low Country has to offer. Whether you are enjoying a nice, cold Coke on a hot and humid day or paddle boarding down a marsh creek bend, there is always something around the corner. Down here, our people are carefree, and our drawls and manners are sweeter than our iced tea.

1. Coca-Cola is your drink of choice. Drinking anything but Coke is like a betrayal to the South. You give a look of despair when a restaurant from your hometown serves Pepsi. "I beg your pardon?"

2. You are a complete seafood snob. You only eat freshly caught shrimp, crab, and fish. You would never dare go near the dining hall seafood… where do they even import that nonsense? “Excuse me, sir, is your shrimp caught fresh from Georgia? No? I’ll just have a house salad, thanks..."

3. Your town completely freaks out and practically shuts down when there is any chance of snow or ice. When you go off to college somewhere away from home, you certainly get excited over the tiniest of flurries!

4. You take your town’s natural beauty for granted. Every time you come home for a visit, you are in awe of the palm trees and the giant live oaks draped in Spanish moss. You think, “Who would ever want to leave this place?” even though you moved hours away in the Appalachian foothills to attend college.

5. When you meet someone who says they know someone from your hometown, you immediately ask, “What church does he/she go to?”

6. Summertime means oyster roasts, Low Country boils and dock parties. Boats and baes? Please and thank you.

7. Your activities probably include crabbing, kayaking, fishing, tanning, but mostly laying around inside your home bored as can be while hiding from the heat and humidity. Tip from experience: don’t go to the beach to tan when the heat index is 110… You’ll pay your meter for five hours but will not even last twenty minutes.

8. You have had some kind of encounter (or multiple) with an alligator. My most memorable gator encounter was when I was driving down I-26 near I-95 and coming across the creature on the side of the road after sitting in bumper-to bumper traffic for a solid three hours. “Oh, I’ve never seen that one before…”

9. You have by far the most gorgeous pictures of sunsets. They are in no comparison to the other states outside of the Low Country what-so-ever.

10. Your town or a town nearby has had a movie like Forrest Gump filmed there. Whenever someone asks me where I’m from, I show them a picture of Wormsloe where the iconic, "Run Forrest, Run” scene was filmed.

11. You prefer Bluffton oysters over Apalachicola any day. Yes, Apalachicola oysters are huge, but there’s something special about those itty bitty South Carolina oysters, they’re sweet and the shells are perfect for shabby chic decor.

12. You incorporated burlap, mason jars, and nautical decor into your college dorm room. You could never part with your home!

13. You didn’t realize you had an accent until you went off to college. Even though I go to college in the upstate of South Carolina, (practically North Carolina), people find my accent intriguing.

14. Even though you have found yourself contemplating about moving away from the Low Country, you cannot imagine leaving such a beautiful region of the South.