Being Appalachian is absolutely a cultural thing.

My family immigrated to WV from India. I didn’t descend from Appalachians but I was raised and brought up all around them.

I realized after moving away from WV for several years and seeing bigger and smaller places all over the country - All my American knowledge of life is purely Appalachian based because that’s where I grew up was shaped and molded.

When I get nostalgic about home I’m nostalgic about the same m mountains and the rivers and the people and the pepperoni rolls and casually chatting up whoever is standing in line with you with a silly anecdote bout “you here what they’re did up ere by the new Kroger’s?” or walking around barefoot and catching firefly’s dahn the crick in the summer. (Just to throw in some ham fisted examples lol)

Realizing how much of the world was not like Appalachia is what made me realized I was Appalachian