Last Train Out with Faith Adedokun ... Beauty beyond the surface

This month, Faith Adedokun joins the TALK Greenville family as a contributor to our Last Train Out feature. We asked her to tell us a little about herself.

When I was 21, I decided, with all the reason my mercurial, youthful self could conjure, that I needed a change of scenery. I had spent most of my life in the halcyon town of Irmo, on the outskirts of South Carolina's capital city. But, like many people, I had a complicated relationship with my hometown.

By the time I'd graduated from college, I felt stifled—a marginally too big fish in a marginally too-small town. So, I did what so many people do, I hugged my family and friends and set off for somewhere, anywhere different. I wanted to live in a big, beautiful city, with a big, beautiful apartment, to grow my big, beautiful dreams.

In 2007, I landed In Charlotte, N.C., a place that had the sparkle and "big city" feel my hometown most certainly did not. But as with many idealistic things we pursue when young and hopelessly optimistic, I didn't find nearly as much of the big and beautiful as I'd hoped. Having graduated in time to be dumped headfirst into the economic collapse of 2008, I found myself instead in a cramped townhouse with five roommates and nary a glimmer of that apartment I'd envisioned.

It took only a few months for the sparkle to wear off, but I stuck it out in the Queen City for five years. With its traffic and sprawl .... and traffic, I had a hard time learning, but I did eventually grow to genuinely love that city and I still do. But even though I'd learned much and loved much, it just didn't feel like the place I could or, more aptly, would put down roots. In 2012, I made another impulsive, if also short, hop and moved to Greenville, a place that was beautiful though decidedly smaller.

At the time, I knew very little about Greenville except for these high notes: It had a charming downtown -- with its year-round twinkle lights and local restaurants, way too many Clemson fans (sorry ya'll, Carolina girl through and through) and was home to a staggering number of my dearest friends. But it was that last part, my Greenville friends, that decided all I needed to know.

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When I think back on that time, other than a giggle at how little I knew about literally anything, I think back on a lesson I learned: If we are wise and dogged enough to look beyond the surface, things can be so much more than they seem, and people and places can surprise you.

In the 11-plus years I've called Greenville home, it has changed incredibly. It has gotten bigger, prettier, and most certainly more popular and populous. We're on fancy lists now, called out as a best-kept secret. I'm staggered every year at the number of tourists, some of whom, struck by the same unmistakable charm I was, move to call Greenville home. Don't get me wrong, I know every city and every place is complicated. The reality is that there is often much that beauty, opulence and glimmer hides. But still, there is so much to love about this place, and far more than meets the eye.

Yes, we have our gorgeous parks and the mountains. There's the food and drink, the community events, and art festivals. There's the notable performing arts center that had us all listening to and learning Lin-Manuel Miranda lyrics for a season, bless. But, beyond the obvious points of pride, I'd argue that the real attraction, the real staggering draw of beauty to Greenville, is the very thing that put it on the map for me all those years ago: its people.

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It's the folks who genuinely embody southern hospitality and kindness. The creatives who have painted, sculpted, written and sung us into a more beautiful place. The incendiaries who, with prescient perspective, continue to galvanize, and dream, and hope this city into a better version of itself. The 25 people, beautiful inside and out, who are celebrated in this very issue, and so many others bursting from every direction in between.

This, to me, is what has made Greenville a place that I can smile and call home. Lots of towns have beautiful scenery and fun things to do, but it's a rare thing to find a place, far beyond all its accolades, filled with so many people of such staggering beauty.

I did not, in fact, know much all those years ago. But my time here has proven, beyond what I'd hoped, that I did at least know that.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Last Train Out with Faith Adedokun ... Beyond the Surface