As a mid-20's adult, I was sad to leave southeastern PA because I knew I'd miss the things I could get on the East Coast, like Yeungling beer and a decent cheese steak on good, crusty bread. And people who knew to use the right lane on the highway if they weren't going faster than the guy behind them. Oh yeah, and that the lines on the road weren't just a suggestion: they really want you to keep your car between those lines. But I wasn't going to miss the people. Poor, desperate people with the emotional mindset of Attila the Hun (and that was just navigating the Giant supermarket lanes). People who had to make some really hard decisions in order to afford a house, much less an apartment. I still have friends out there who work no less than two (cr#ppy and unfulfilling) jobs trying to stay on track with a mortgage for a dingy row house in a very unsafe section of town. And I don't miss the mindset when I go back and have seemed to become softer and gentler. Guess what guys? Being proud that you think you're some kind of hard-a**, carrying around a cross made of telephone poles really just makes you an a**hole. Get help.
I remember watching the news on New Years Eve in '95, and the news channel from NYC that I was watching said, "...broadcasting to you from the center of Western Civilization." I cracked up thinking, "If New York is the best western civilization has to offer, we're in a whole helluva lotta trouble." And I was right: for every bible-belter we have here, you guys elect somebody like Rudy Giuliani. And I heard more racist jokes there than I do here. And I know more interracial couples here than I ever saw there.
Is there a lot to be sickened by in the people here, too? Read the comments section of any Indystar.com article involving "the gays."
Sure as anything, this short life has already taught me that every place is somehow nice or has something redeeming. It's just the people that ruin it. What do the mountains of Central New Jersey and West Virginia have in common? Both are stunningly beautiful. Just don't get out of the car to talk to anyone.
But every day I am pleasantly surprised by a populace that doesn't live its everyday life like rats in a cage. I was riding the Monon trail with a friend yesterday, and people were just waving and saying "hi"--and not because they wanted to rape me or mug me or that had a touch of "the special" in the head. They did it just because its a polite and human thing to do (it took me a good 2-3 years to stop flinching when people I didn't know would just say 'hi.' That was the biggest culture shock.) And for every bible thumping, mouth breathing idiot, there are thoughtful and reflective college-educated people who wanted cheap housing and a small, easily navigable city (everything is usually 20 minutes away.)
So here is The Challenge:
If you're graduated from college and think you're smart, ask yourself: Why are throwing away your life paying $1100 for some shoebox apartment in an already saturated creative market? The most intelligent and cunning among you would move here, to the "cultural wasteland" because these kinds of places are where the most opportunity hangs like heavy fruit from the lowest branches. There is all the room in the world to create your opportunities.
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