There are a few things I have learned in my short life that beg to be shared. They aren't necessarily things that fit into a specific top ten list, they're just things that stick out in my mind as things that need to be shared, should such-and-such subject come up. I suppose if I were forced to come up with a name for this list, it would be: Top Ten Things Every Southern Woman Knows. 1. You will never again feel like you did that summer night you took a jar outside and caught fireflies in it. Fortunately, you will also never again feel the way you did the next morning when you realized that putting fireflies in a jar is not so good for their health and well-being. 2. There is a sound that a steel guitar makes that is unlike any other sound heard on earth. It will rip your heart out and hold it up, glistening and bloody for the whole world to see. But it doesn't matter because, if the musician is really playing it well, everyone who hears it is having their heart ripped out with you. The closest you will ever get to this feeling apart from a steel guitar is when you hear a choir in a small country church sing Amazing Grace, acappella, and sing it well. 3. Sweet tea and lemonade are perfectly acceptable beverages to serve, even at the most formal of occasions. 4. Square dancing is a school subject, apparently important enough to be part of your P.E. grade. 5. At some point in your life, you're going to have to know how to waltz and to curtsey, so you might as well learn now, missy. 6. You can get by on looks and charm, but only for about 15 minutes. After that, you better know something. 7. Sorry, my Yankee friends, but pure cane syrup will beat out maple syrup hands down, any day of the week. Especially if you're pouring it in a poked biscuit. 8. Whether you're talking about dating, or just talking about sitting down, keeping your legs closed is never a bad policy. 9. You will never see anything that looks as good as river water glistening on a tanned man's chest, when he's pulling himself up out of the water on the first day of summer. There is a shine to those drops that makes you feel funny inside. It also makes you instantly feel beautiful and mischievous, a dangerous combination for any woman. The closest you will ever get to this sight, when not experiencing this exact situation, is staring into a pure diamond gleaming in the sun. Which brings me to... 10. There is nothing that makes a girl feel as smug as being blinded while she's driving by the sun hitting the fat diamond on her left hand. You may ask how I know this. I know this because it happened to me last Sunday. Yep, I'm biting the bullet. In a few months, my dear friends, loyal readers, and critics (I even love you guys today), this Southern Girl is going to be a Married Southern Girl! So there's the good (fantastic!) news - wish me well - although I evidently don't need it, because I'm the luckiest girl in the world.