A California Girl Living in an Oregon World

The year 2008 was a year of change for me. It was going to be the first year that I would be moving out of state for school; it would be when I would be leaving the state I grew up in without knowing when I would be returning. For all I knew I would be going to Grad School and then return to where I started (Fresno).

However, that didn't happen, I came to become what I would say "a California Girl living in the Northwest". I am not going to claim I'm an Oregonian (though some may beg to differ), I still claim my Californian status. So with that being said, I have come to experience more up here than I could ever imagine. I have grown and changed in more ways than I can ever explain. I have had experiences and met people that I would never take back and never would have had experienced if I had gone back to the "comfort zone".

This season in my life has been full of up's and down's but would not change anything for the world. This season I have chosen to trust more than ever before and I have been able to fully embrace my independence. It's been a whirlwind and sometimes it's hard for me to know when I experienced a particular event.

However, I have noticed that I still keep some "Californian" in me. I'll try to tread lightly on this subject as to not offend anyone but one thing that I have noticed is the way that people drive up here compared down where I come from. I always joke with my parents that up here it's almost like the movie "Driving Miss Daisy". The cars up here don't know how to go faster than 55 or maybe 60 (if you're lucky). However there are plenty of people who actually know how to go faster than that and for that I am grateful. I'm still not used to the speed being 55 or 65.

Another thing about driving up here is the whole merging on the freeway. I'm used to merging onto the freeway going at or above the speed of traffic, as to not intterupt the flow of traffic already on the freeway.... However I have observed on many instances that the people merging or when I am merging it's a "I'm not going to let you in" or "I'm going to go as slow as possible to annoy those on the freeway". I guess it all goes back to the slower pace lifestyle we have up here.

Alright, it's not all bad and I do appreciate the slower pace that Oregon offers. I love the scenery and I have to say I would want to be stuck in traffic up here than the traffic in San Francisco anyday of the year. Plus people know how to drive in the rain up here (maybe even too confident). I love it up here. It's a great place to live during this chapter of my life.

So I'm still a person who claims to be Californian but would not change this chance in the world. If someone were to say to me "would you change anything that you have done or experienced"? I would have to say no because the experiences that I have gone through have made me who I am today. There are too many people who have helped shape my life thus far but you all know who you are so I want to say Thank You to All!