answer:The air smells like warm rootbeer and children jump on gumdrop trampolines under the melted blueberry ice cream sky every day. But seriously. I’m from the Southeast and the Appalachian mountains. The people here are notoriously and fiercely independent, and that’s what America means to me, as an idea. In part, at least, because nothing is that simple. Around here, we hunt, grow, and prepare our own food, we make our own clothes, and we don’t ask for help from anyone but we are willing to give the shirt off our back if you need it. I’m very proud of that.