When I moved to Tennessee in July, I spent a couple weeks exploring the area, especially downtown, and figuring out where everything is. I was familiar with the general area, as my family used to visit several times a year when we lived in Georgia. But that had been eight years or more; most of my memories were foggy.

The agency I work for is headquartered in New York City. The Tennessee office is its newest satellite office, so a lot of people I work with moved down from New York and the surrounding area. In their first few weeks down here, I asked all of the obligatory touristy questions: Did you go to the top of the Empire State Building? Is the State of Liberty really that green? Do people really get coffee at Central Perk? What’s Central Park like?

I was shocked when they said they hadn’t actually done many of the popular tourist activities.

I’m writing today to say that it’s perfectly okay to be a tourist in your own city. 

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