Why I’m leaving Tennessee over its abortion laws.

I am leaving Tennessee.

This place is my home. I grew up here, learning to ride horses and play music in the rolling hills around Nashville, boating on the TVA lakes in Celina and Gallatin, going to Opryland, and mentoring Girl Scouts at Camp Sycamore Hills. I am entirely educated by Tennessee schools. I am an alum of Brentwood High School, UTK, MTSU, and Vanderbilt. I have been able to reach a high degree of success and contentment here, in Tennessee. The place I call home.

The author, center, with others in the Brentwood High School Marching Band, after a successful marching band competition in Dickson County, Tennessee, 2005.

Recent events mean that I cannot stay. I must flee.