Earlier this year I took a road trip with my friend up north.

We visited Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago (my favorite, I’ve visited their twice in two years now), Milwaukee, Springfield, Illinois and St. Louis.

During our time in Indianapolis, we met people who immediately could tell we were not from the area. They said it was our accents that gave us away, but I had no idea what they were talking about.

They were only slightly rude saying that they didn’t think anything interesting came out of the south.

The vicious truth is there are some people that look at people from Alabama, and automatically think that all we do is talk about Alabama Football and marry our cousins, which is totally not true.

We talk about other things, and I only know of one set of cousins that married each other.

It was interesting to me these people had this automatic impression of us just because of my apparent southern drawl that I still don’t hear.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought they were wrong.

You don’t have to look far in Selma and Dallas County to find interesting people who make a difference in the community.

Just look at the newest “20 Under 40” coming out soon. The list of 20 this year collectively have quite impressive resumes with what they do, and they have returned or relocated here for the first time to contribute their talents to the community.

Look at Integrity Worldwide that just opened the Meto Integrity Medical Health and Dental Center in Kenya.

That group is based in Selma.

They also hold the annual Run for Kenya that helps raise money to continue their work in Africa.

We have Rachel Bearden, who was this past week’s Church Spotlight. When she is not actually in Selma, she spends her time with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as a Vestry leader and Sunday school teacher, but also is a biologist for the state.

She spends her time working with endangered species, and their habitats.

It doesn’t matter where you live in this world as long as you make the best of the place around you.

There’s opportunity wherever you go to hone your talents and interests to the community you live in.

I admit that I use to think that people can only flourish in metropolitan cities where there is more resources and an abundance of people.

It makes sense, and I completely understand it.

I left the Huntsville area to come here, and I have friends that still think I am insane for making the move down here.

I admittedly miss it.

Huntsville is rapidly growing, and there is a large amount of people there and memories.

However, that doesn’t make it any less important that I moved here for a reason.

I believe now after watching groups here work that interesting and exciting things can happen wherever you go.

You don’t need a Starbucks in the city limits, and an available Uber driver to make things seem interesting.

I also certainly disagree that only dull people are in small towns. The people I have listed are just scraping the surface of this area.

There are interesting people wherever you go, and part of the adventure is meeting them in the most random places.

Will Whaley is the editor of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at will.whaley@selmatimesjournal.com.