By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

My first foray into Selma was exactly seven months ago when I drove here to interview at the Times-Journal. I was nervous as all get-out, and I had no clue what to expect.

Then I topped that last hill before the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and my jaw dropped.

Then I crossed that historic structure over the Alabama River, and my life changed.

Maybe I didn’t realize how dramatic that moment was at the time, but I have discovered a whole new world since I started working in Selma two and a half weeks ago. I was immediately struck by the grandeur, the beauty and the history in this city.

But it seemed like the longtime residents were seeing another side.

“I just think Selma could be beautiful,” a resident of Ward 3 told me at the election a couple weeks ago.

She’s not the only one.  I’ve met dozens of people in Selma, and they all have high hopes for the city’s future. And through talking to them, I’ve developed high hopes for it as well.

I was telling my boyfriend all about the city and who I’ve met and what I’ve learned.

“It’s funny,” he said, as I told him about Phoenix Park and the plans for the new amphitheater.

“It’s like you fall in love with every city you visit.”

He was right about me. Selma already has a piece of my heart, a piece I know I will never get back. This city of historic places and social graces has renewed my faith in Southern hospitality and made me believe that people really can unite, transcending every type division, under a common goal: to retain what is, and restore what isn’t, to keep Alabama’s second oldest city on the map.

Selma has endless possibilities: the Interpretive Center and Phoenix Park are just the beginning of what could be.

As an outsider, I’m excited to see the plans for Riverfront Park. Before meeting the people here, I would have said it was a pipe dream.

But with the love for the city and the determination to see it grow that I have seen in the folks who live here — I’d say there’s nothing Selma can’t do.

– Alison McFerrin