The Floridian: An Introduction

Welcome to The Floridan, a newsletter of a displaced Florida man’s various writings: poems, journal entries, quotes, essays on faith, on the craft of writing, maybe on books and music, possibly philosophy, and definitely more. My name is Kyle G. Jones and I’m a native Floridian living in the midwest. Sort of by choice, and sort of not. I’m a husband, father, poet, author, 8th grade writing teacher, and, when time permits, a podcaster.

I grew up in South Florida: Pembroke Pines/Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale area—the 954–just north of Miami (the 305¹). In 2007, I left South Florida to attend college in Austin, Texas. After getting married and graduating, my wife (also a native Floridian) and I moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex for work, before my job brought us and our newborn daughter to the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2018. After changing careers and growing some roots, it looks like we’re here to stay.

I lived the last ten years or so in a tension between loving the place where my identity was founded and not wanting to move back there. I didn’t know what to do with this mix of feelings. Then I read these words from Ann Friedman:

“There’s a confidence in not hating or pitying the region that birthed you, a joy in maintaining the strong ties you choose, and a peace in not hierarchically ranking the cultures that compose your identity. It’s possible to love a place from afar and never really leave it.”

I had no reservations about leaving South Florida, about getting out of the region that birthed me. Many of my high school classmates did the same, many merely escaped to other parts of the state: Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville. Even my wife fled South Florida and joined me in Texas while we were dating.

I left South Florida at 19 with little thought of what I was leaving behind, and little thought of moving back. I never denied my point of origin, but for a good while I certainly didn’t appreciate it. I didn’t have the deep, abiding affection I do now almost two decades later.

Florida can be a weird place in general. South Florida is its own unique weird place inside the national oddity that is Florida. But South Florida is beautiful. A marvelous mix of cultures, histories, and backgrounds. A place with city life, suburban sprawl, beaches, and the Everglades. A place with political exiles, Native American tribes, ocean-front high rises, international sports stars (to go along with three international airports), alligator wrestling, and Jimmy Buffet. South Florida is a place devoid of singularity. Like us. Like this “newsletter,” if I can call it that.

The topics and writings you’ll find here will be as varied as the “Florida Man” headlines the algorithm or your local news station feeds you. Most of them won’t be about Florida at all, but they’re all written by someone whose identity is influenced and co-authored by South Florida; that is, by a Floridian.

You’re invited to come along for the ride. The air boat’s waiting.

1. Fun fact: my home phone number growing up originally had a 305 area code before we had to start dialing area codes to make a phone call.