The Road to Texanacity Explained

Welcome to the Road to Texanacity!! The simplest explanation of this Road is my attempt to understand more about Texas and Texans. As you will soon learn, The Road to Texanacity lies somewhere between a sociology experiment, travel guide, cultural immersion, geographical game, and personal odyssey. To begin, I should probably explain what ‘texanacity’ is:

Texanacity (Texas + Tenacity) is the tenacious spirit that Texans have for their state. I am sure everyone has run into a Texan and been either mildly amused (or annoyed) about the pride Texans have for their state. How many people from Iowa can start rattling off a list of presidents of their state (oh wait! Iowa didn’t have their own presidents)? How many people from Montana have years of ‘Montana history’ by the time they leave grade school? How many people from the rest of the US can say that their state was once an independent country or can fly their state flag at the same level as the American flag? How many other Americans live in a state that can divide itself into up to 5 new states?

The pride that Texans have for their state is unmatched. As a non-native ('naturalized') Texan, I am fascinated by this fervor. Why do Texans have such a love affair with their state? The Road to Texanacity is my attempt to understand why the people of Texas have such a tenacious pride in their state. It is also my attempt to try to become ‘more Texan’.

Coming originally from Nebraska, I can safely say that Nebraskans do not have the same kind of state pride (therefore, the Road to Nebraskanacity would not be much fun and very short). My grade school education about my state included one week in 4th grade and went roughly like this:

Monday- Native Americans lived in Nebraska (They were forced to leave).
Tuesday- Lewis and Clark walked through Nebraska (and left).
Wednesday- the Oregon Trail went through Nebraska (people came through…and left).
Thursday- The Transcontinental Railroad went through Nebraska (The railroad came through…and left).
Friday- The Nebraska Cornhusker football team is awesome.

After my formative years, I moved to Texas and soon realized that Texans were absolutely passionate about their state-from the Alamo to NASA to the Dallas Cowboys. They were almost passionate to a fault. I remember often telling a Texan that I was from Nebraska and receiving one of two replies: “Damn Yankee!!” or “isn’t-that-one-of-them-there-square-states”. I was annoyed with these responses because 1) I never thought anyone from Nebraska as being a ‘Yankee’ and 2) although Nebraska has some ‘squarish’ tendencies, it is not exactly square. C’mon people! Didn’t you ever take geography? I finally realized that it was not that Texans were poorly educated; rather, they just didn’t care about most of the rest of the United States because they were so proud of their own state.

Once I realized the ego-centric nature of Texans, I became fascinated by why they were so passionate about their state. Hence my desire to learn more about this passion and try to have a similar love for Texas. Therefore, the Road to Texanacity was born!

The Road to Texanacity is a game. This game includes 100 points. The more points you have, the more ‘Texanacious’ you are…Pretty simple, eh?

Points are earned by doing, learning, or experiencing things that are truly Texan. For instance, you get one point for going to the Alamo. You get another point by visiting the state capital. These examples are fairly basic, but to be truly Texanacious, you will soon learn that not all the points are so straight forward. This blog will go through each of the 100 points that are available for being truly Texanacious. My goal is to reveal one point a week until all 100 points are accounted for. I will be keeping my own score and trying to get more points as I try to become texanacious. I hope you enjoy and good luck!

Enjoy Texas and welcome to the Road to Texanacity...