When I decided to transfer to Vicksburg, I knew one person, my fiancée.

I was excited; I was nervous.

I moved in January, and I was immediately busy with trying to book all available weekends with out-of-town trips to visit friends and family.

It didn’t take long before I started realizing that spending a weekend in town wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.

My calendar started showing less of Oxford and Shreveport and more 5k races and local festivals — and no, not just because I had to cover them for the newspaper.

As I started staying in town for more and more concerts and comedy nights, I ended up having to reschedule more and more trips out of town.

Interested to see what was keeping me in Vicksburg, or more likely fed up with cancellations, friends and family began trickling into my new hometown.

What a feat. Before moving here I never thought I’d talk people into coming to visit me in Vicksburg.

Now my grandparents have stayed at the Duff Green Mansion and toured the Vicksburg National Military Park and my parents have rated an untold amount of restaurants on TripAdvisor and become as familiar with Washington Street as I have.

My friends have accompanied me to trivia, bingo and karaoke, all while lamenting there’s more things to do in Vicksburg than their new cities of Atlanta and Dallas.

No matter where I take people and what we do, there’s always something else that seems to make a lasting impression: to whom I introduce them.

Yes, it’s not the delicious food, breathtaking views and inspiring history of Vicksburg, but rather the people.

With all the wonderful things our city has to offer tourists, with its museums, murals, monuments and the mighty Mississippi, the thing I find myself most often showing off is its fine people.

Now instead of figuring out where I’ll spend my weekends, I’m figuring out which old friends I’ll be introducing to new ones.