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I hate New York State when I lived there. Ckhthankgod will recall my posts as well as anyone still here. I was a 22 year old living in Elmira, NY when I joined this site in 2011, left NY in early '13. I absolutely hated my time there, in the moment...
A few years after leaving my views began changing, now I'm over 6 years removed from leaving NYS, over 8 years removed from moving there (went there at 21), the time and just the natural maturation life dictated for me anyway, has given me so much more depth on my stay there...
It still wasn't one of the greatest periods of my life.....and in some ways, it was. You look back and you can see how experiences shaped you and your future, and you realize your time there wasn't nearly as all bad as you felt in the moment...
I hate New York State when I lived there. Ckhthankgod will recall my posts as well as anyone still here. I was a 22 year old living in Elmira, NY when I joined this site in 2011, left NY in early '13. I absolutely hated my time there, in the moment...
A few years after leaving my views began changing, now I'm over 6 years removed from leaving NYS, over 8 years removed from moving there (went there at 21), the time and just the natural maturation life dictated for me anyway, has given me so much more depth on my stay there...
It still wasn't one of the greatest periods of my life.....and in some ways, it was. You look back and you can see how experiences shaped you and your future, and you realize your time there wasn't nearly as all bad as you felt in the moment...
Upstate isn’t SO bad! I lived in two communities there and it’s very much just a state of mind (kinda like the slogan!) it’s so beautiful there so much nature and interesting just way too liberal for me. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And yes experiences good and bad shape your future.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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NY was a great place, for me, to grow up. Good and competitive schools, good and competitive people (though a fair share of d-bags), you get an unbelievable street smarts education (NY metro area) that instills a hustle mentality and never quitting when the chips are down, you are forced to take a stand and make decisions (crap or get off the can), and common courtesy and common sense are beaten into your head by 4 safety nets—parents, friends, peers and strangers.
Great advice you gave him in your last paragraph. I'll be 30 in a month in a half and I'm still learning about myself, about life. Someone who is California born and raised (MrJester) and has seldom left California to boot, as well as being younger, isn't going to have the same range of experiences as I; this same thing can be applied comparing me to older and/or more traveled individuals...
Jester, Sacramento may never feel home or become your favorite city, and that's fine. I can assure you this though, once you start traveling more and you have a chance to both a)mature in your own worldview and b)experience a variety of this country's great places, your outlook on Sacramento will evolve. Try to enjoy it while you're there, because trust me, a lot of places don't have a Sacramento and there are Sac and Cali-specific characteristics you'll recall on a little more fondly once you're gone. Even if you never return and never develop a "love" for Sacramento, trust me on this!
If I could rep you I would.
This is especially true if you go someplace for college. I'm the same age as you (about to be 30), and I realize you don't really "live" in a place when you're in college. You live in a bubble, away from non-students, with people who are more or less the same age as you. I found this to be true whether you went to a college in a small town or big city. Your view of the city you went to college in is for the most part, cased in how your college experience went.
For me, law school was absolutely horrific. I still can't visit Ann Arbor because of how badly it went. There are cool bars like Kips, and the town itself is pretty cool, but since that was so terrible and I was generally miserable, I can't view Ann Arbor in that kind of light. Of course, this was more like 2-3 years ago for me as opposed to 8-9. College was a lot of fun for me because, now that I think about it, I was pretty social. But at the time, I felt homesick and was prone to feeling depressed. As an 18-19 year old, you constantly compare where your school is from where you grew up, because that's your only frame of reference.
Once you get older, experience life a bit more, and start getting bad experiences in other cities, the hyperbole starts going away.
Judging by the rest of that post -
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJester
Why do I prefer the Southeast over NorCal? Because I am a conservative Republican who is disgusted with the politics of California, an evangelical Christian who has no place in a secular environment like NorCal, a teetotaler who would shun any wine tasting or bars, a hater of cold weather and therefore would avoid Tahoe entirely, and a busy college student who's too busy to fight the traffic on the I-80 and drive two or three hours to San Fran just for a day trip.
Most people, in real life, aren't this inflexible. At some point, the problem isn't really the place. The problem is you. It's not your religious affiliation or your political affiliation that is making it terrible, its the complete in adaptability to the situation. I live in the DC area, and know plenty of people on the right, and hell, some alt-righters who complain and moan about DC a lot, but try to find ways to enjoy it.
There are very few functioning people I know in the real world who let their politics shape every single thing they do and enjoy (this goes for both the right and left). If you're like this, no one can help you but you. Keep in mind, you're going to have a boss one day who is completely on the opposite spectrum of you. How will you handle it?
Sorry for the psychoanalysis, but I feel like there's a lot of 20 somethings on this forum, and trust me, we've all gone through it. Its not just directed at "you" but at all 20 somethings. No matter where you move, you can't run away from you, no matter how hard you try.
You know that dude you’re talking to is a college student, right?
Engineering student to boot. The epitome of excitement! I say that because most engineering students I know barely went outside at all, if you took your courses seriously of course. I'd hate where I lived too if all that I got from it is spending countless hours in a computer lab or library. That would be boring to anyone.
If you spend enough time in a place, you’ll find ways to be bored but it isn’t the places fault - it’s on the person. Personally I thought Ann Arbor was a bit boring too while I was in college, but now that I have more life experience, I realize there was a charm to it.
It depends what you find to be “exciting”. Personally I’ve never been to Sacramento but I have no expectations for it. If you have no expectations, then there’s more possibility for upside than downside.
When you’re 18-22, you expect everything to come to you quickly especially in this current era or instant gratification. The excitement has to come at you music festival style or else it will never come. Fortunately, real life isn’t like that. Don't be surprised that people older than you who've been through all that don’t exactly share the same opinion as you.
At my school, engineering students are just as fashionable, sociable, liberal, and outdoorsy as anyone else. My classmates drive two hours to Tahoe to go skiing all the time. You'll find them smoking weed, going to bars, and for the 20% who are female, shopping for clothes.
Is it just because I'm a college student so I don't like Sacramento? No. My community college was in Orange County ( and community colleges are even more boring than 4 year schools) but I loved Orange County a lot.
You just don't find Sacramento attractive. Plenty of people do, including me.
You just clearly have an axe to grind with Sac and can't see it for what it is. The entire reason it's underrated is because the flashy touristy parts of CA steal the spotlight. But it's an extremely diverse city with a strong economy and a population larger than most people realize due to the spotlight being taken away.
It may have a strong economy and be a big city, a nice place to live, but in terms of a place to visit it disappoints. I think that was the point of the thread.
The fact that plenty of people find Sacramento attractive, with so many people out of state seeing Sac as their favorite city, shows that it is far from being underrated.
It may have a strong economy and be a big city, a nice place to live, but in terms of a place to visit it disappoints. I think that was the point of the thread.
The fact that plenty of people find Sacramento attractive, with so many people out of state seeing Sac as their favorite city, shows that it is far from being underrated.
How can someone who lives there have good perspective on talking about it as a place to visit? How can someone who lives there and whose life revolves almost entirely around California have any idea what "so many people from out of state see" or feel?
From the outside, Sacramento doesn't have nearly the reputation that New Orleans does. Nobody thinks about it in the same tier as Austin or Portland. For most outside of the West Coast, it's an afterthought. That's exactly why it's underrated. People who visit from outside the region tend to be surprised in a good way. Does that mean it's a better city than Austin, Portland, NOLA, etc? No. But it does still manage to slip under for most people and if most visitors from out of state are pleasantly surprised when they visit, then that's the very definition of underrated.
I visited Atlanta for the first time recently and wasn’t very impressed. It’s not a bad city by any means but I failed to really grasp why people think it’s so special. It seems like just an average city for its size, with bad traffic, southeastern weather, etc.
I wasn’t terribly impressed with DC either to be honest. Nice city, saw all the sights. But left a little disappointed. Didn’t really like the vibe there, mix of passive aggression and blatant rudeness amongst the population. Actually liked Baltimore a bit better. More charming neighborhoods (in the nicer areas like Fells Point) and people seemed friendly and genuine. But, I’d like to go back and spend a little more time in DC to see if I have a different experience.
I visited Atlanta for the first time recently and wasn’t very impressed. It’s not a bad city by any means but I failed to really grasp why people think it’s so special. It seems like just an average city for its size, with bad traffic, southeastern weather, etc.
I wasn’t terribly impressed with DC either to be honest. Nice city, saw all the sights. But left a little disappointed. Didn’t really like the vibe there, mix of passive aggression and blatant rudeness amongst the population. Actually liked Baltimore a bit better. More charming neighborhoods (in the nicer areas like Fells Point) and people seemed friendly and genuine. But, I’d like to go back and spend a little more time in DC to see if I have a different experience.
Good observations but I don’t know how anyone can come away from DC being disappointed, there’s so much there.
Good observations but I don’t know how anyone can come away from DC being disappointed, there’s so much there.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great seeing the sights, and visiting the neighborhoods like DuPont Circle, Capitol Hill, and Georgetown. I just wasn’t “wowed” like I was visiting some other cities in the US. But like i said, I just visited for a few weekends while on a temporary job assignment in Maryland, and I did feel like I needed some more time to really get a feel for the city, whereas in Atlanta, I felt as if I’d seen enough after three days.
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