Atlanta brands itself as progressive-"too busy to hate" - but that language masks a system of institutional neglect. Aharon's life in Georgia was about perseverance. Raised economically disadvantaged within a tumultuous family unit and weighed down by a history of abuse, they are now an aspiring journalist. They advocate for those on the margins — people who, at times, mirror themselves. Queer, poor, unhoused, or disabled folks are left behind, while harm reduction tools like NARCAN and fentanyl test strips remain inaccessible to those struggling with substance use. The South is often flattened into a stereotype, but it holds both violent inequality and powerful resistance. Through image, text, and interview, my work asks: Who benefits from the myth of progress? Who is told to wait? The system rarely changes — whether it hides behind hateful scripture or gentrification wrapped in rainbow flags, the damage lands the same. This work lives in the friction between perception and lived reality - between the imagined South and the real one. It's where beauty meets exhaustion, where resistance grows out of pain.