Guest Post: Christina Kwan of Tide & Bloom

I've been in awe of Christina Kwan ever since we met six years ago. The girl is fearless. She choreographed my favorite dance of my college career (U.R.A.Q.T., in case you're wondering), despite the fact that she was fairly new to dancing. She started Tide & Bloom to show the world her true and multi-dimensional self. She showcases her talent every single day in each post, photograph and feature on the site. To say Christina has guts would be an understatement. As she's another badass lady living in the South, I asked Christina to tell me about her love affair with the ATL. Here's what she had to say:

I've spent 22 years of my life living in Florida and 4 of them living in Georgia. Of all those years, it's been here, in Atlanta, where I've felt the most me. I'm sure it's a confluence of many factors that I've landed in this place – my age, my career, my relationships. But when friends and family try to lure me to other cities, I can't help but feel an allegiance to ATL. I find myself sticking up for it, sticking up for all the flaws and all the hidden beautiful gems I've come to love. In the few years I've been here, it's really become my home. It feels like this is where I'm really from.

I would never actually call myself a “Southerner”, but it seems like everything I love is centered around being here in the capital of the South. It's here that I've stopped being an artist and started all over again. It's here that I've learned the balance and boundaries of what works for me, creatively and professionally. It's here that I've learned what it means to begin adulthood. And it's here that I met the love of my life.

Perhaps my passion for this city is based wholly on personal experience and growth. But that's what it should be based on, right? Would I have become the same person had I chosen Houston, Brooklyn, the Bay Area, or anywhere else? Would my friendships have stayed the same, would my hand have made the same marks? Difficult to answer such huge what if's. All I know is what I've experienced and here in Atlanta, I've gone through what feels like a decade of growth. 

The city isn't what knocked me down; it's what's been keeping me going. No matter where you live, your post-college journey is going to be a rough one. It's the first time you actually have control of everything in your life and it's also the first time that you realize it's scary as shit not having a school calendar to follow. The years pass and pass and you learn things organically, not by assignment, but by actual failures and success.

Atlanta is what some would call a “starter” city: relatively easy living standards, a flourishing job market, and a sense of hospitality that makes everything feel a bit cozier. For me, it's become a “staying” city. I can see myself actually sustaining a long life here without compromising comfort or opportunity. It's a city that is unpretentious and young enough to allow outsiders to make a splash, a difference. Oh, and it's also pretty dang beautiful.

This city seems to fit so perfectly, stretching out with my wandering eyes and contracting in with my creative fears. I think I lucked out landing here, in a place so abundant with diversity and open arms. If you haven't visited, I strongly suggest an extended stay – in order to get a full-bodied sense of how easy the living really is here. I dare say it's the best city in the South (feel free to contend with me) because it's the only place that is so representative of all the best in Southern charm: food, design, natural wonders, and of course, people.

What else can I really say? There's no other city that's ever come close. Atlanta, I love you.