Everyone knows that kids can be cruel. This is particularly true when you’re a girl with a boy’s name, and you listen to country music. NO ONE listens to country music as a kid. Yet for me, that was the one genre that I really adored, even though it wasn’t ‘cool.’ I saw country music as a means of expressing oneself without involving tipdrills, curse words or fluffy language. Although I am not from the country, I was always drawn to the raw emotion and small-town mentality that often embodied the country music singer. I also loved that the songs were passionate, relatable, easy to understand and about real life.Although I spent most of my childhood as a closeted country music fanatic, I spent as much time as I could browsing the internet for new country artists and songs. I found that thousands of country music artists exist, but many of them do not get looked at by mainstream media corporations. Even as a child, I wanted to give new artists a chance to get noticed and heard.My passion for country music began as a part-time hobby, and now encapsulates most of my life. In the past five years, I have gone from hiding my love for country music to embracing it. Upon moving to London, Canada to pursue a degree in Media, Information and Technoculture, I was hired by a country music radio station. ‘Today’s Country - BX93’ gave me the opportunity to voice my opinions on new artists and songs on-air every Friday morning in a segment called "Patrice’s Pick.” It was not long after introducing this radio segment that I was asked to do an associated blog for our station’s website. As the appropriately deemed "Country Music Junkie” my radio segment became echoed in an online setting, allowing for other country music fans to comment on my weekly picks.  Each week I post a blog as part of the BX Breakfast blog called "Patrice’s Pick” where I feature new songs by well-known artists and new songs by unknown artists. I strive each week to provide country music fans with the best of new country, as well as an online discussion forum in which country lovers world-wide can participate. To read my blog, visit tinyurl.com/country-bx93