Savannah Branon (Swimming & Diving, Boston College) grew up in Jacksonville. HelloNation asks student athletes one question about the place that raised them and records the answer on camera. This is Savannah Branon’s, in full.
The question
If someone had never been to your hometown, how would you describe its character and reputation? What makes it unique, memorable, or influential?
The answer, as recorded
Transcript. What follows is a transcript of the video above, in Savannah Branon’s own words. It has not been rewritten, and no part of it was drafted for them.
If someone had never been to Jacksonville, the first thing I would tell them is that it's a confusing place to live in. On paper, Jacksonville is a very stagnant place. My dad says that Jacksonville and Charlotte, North Carolina are very similar places to live in. The only difference is Charlotte actually developed in the past 20 years. Oftentimes, people who have never lived in Jacksonville talk about Jacksonville negatively. Things like, there's nothing to do here or everything good is just torn down are things I hear a lot from tourists and local retailers who believe they know everything about modernizing. As such, Jacksonville's reputation isn't very good from an outside perspective. But after coming to Boston and living in a completely different way, I've begun to see the uniqueness of Jacksonville's character. There's a laid-back energy about Jacksonville. Like everyone just wants to enjoy the moment more than move on quickly to the next thing. Sure, it's an annoying attitude to deal with in rush hour on I-95, but not so unpleasant when you're watching the beautiful Jacksonville sunset on our beautiful Jacksonville beaches. Jacksonville is also interesting in the way that it memorializes the smallest things, while other cities might just see them as a small inconvenience. There's this famous red-eyed dinosaur statue named Rex the Dinosaur on Beach Boulevard, who most cities might tear down because of how ugly it is now. But in Jacksonville, he's the center of our roadside history and is unanimously agreed upon to be one of the most important statues in the history of our hometown. But the thing that stands out the most about Jacksonville to me is its diversity. Jacksonville is not flashy and it doesn't try to be, but we have the great privilege of having everyone and everything available in the most unexpected places. To Benny the trumpet player, who has played every day outside the Jacksonville Jaguar Stadium since I was born, to our one and only Scoop and Scootery, where every teenager in Jacksonville goes to on a Friday night. Jacksonville is a strange but quietly influential place that you'll be proud to claim you've been to long after you leave.
Recorded by HelloNation as part of its athlete voices program and published by Hello Newswire, HelloNation’s good news newswire. The words are the speaker’s own.
Reported by Hello Newswire.