I’m Tia. Just a girl living in the South, paying attention to a place that’s never been simple. It’s warm and beautiful and deeply complicated...sometimes all at once. I’ve learned that the parts people avoid talking about are often the same parts that make them keep their distance.

I don’t.

I am here. I live here. I come from here. I move through the South knowing its history. It's a region of contradictions, and it still shapes how people show up — including me. I look directly at the hard things, not because I’m trying to prove anything, but because this is where we come from. Belonging doesn’t disappear because a story is uncomfortable.

The Southern Weekender is where I share what I’ve learned along the way. Some days, that looks like a great place to eat in Atlanta, a road trip worth taking, or a little town that surprises you. Other days, it’s deeply wrought history, memories, and the stuff that lingers beneath the surface. Acknowledged or not.

I don’t write to scare people off. Instead, I write because understanding makes places richer. You can love a place and still tell the truth about it. You can enjoy yourself and stay woke. You can come for the food, the beauty, the weekend — and leave with more than a trinket.

So if you’re curious, if you’re open, if you’re willing to walk — you’re welcome here.

Tia