I spent a lot of time this summer hating tourists. After all, I worked in Destin! But now I'm on vacation before school starts, playing tourist up North. Now that I'm the tourist, I have to reflect a bit more and get a grip on some things.

I've realized there are different kinds of tourism, and that the right kind of tourism is great! My experience in Destin made me hate tourists, but that was because I was being exposed to the wrong kind of tourism!

The typical visitor to Destin is a snobby, rich family that comes just so they can blow money - on expensive bathing suits from outlet malls as well as cheap crap from the tourist stores (such as the two-dollar pieces of plywood they try to pass as skimboards).

If I drive to the East Coast to skimboard or fly to Washington D.C. to take pictures, it is a completely different experience. I'm respectful - I don't throw my trash everywhere, like most people do at our beaches. I'm curious, I want to learn something while I'm there. I don't want to go home with more possessions, just more memories.

I'm glad I finally figured this out. With my attitude of hating all tourists, I would have to start believing that traveling at all is not worth it - which is, of course, completely absurd. I had to draw the line somewhere. I mean if a friend of mine in the next county comes to visit me, is he a filthy tourist? Am I a tourist when I'm at school, even though I live there eight months out of the year? I don't think so.

So what it all comes down to is I don't hate tourists entirely - just the ignorant, I'm-richer-than-you tourist that is so typical and abundant where I happen to live.

I remember saying that we could actually draw more tourists with clean, untouched beaches, instead of condos and malls...just nature at its best. I'll admit, I was wrong about that. We would not draw more tourists - just the right kind of tourists.