Come To Memphis; MLK Was Shot Here

[Miriel]

I was born in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has lots of great food, great weather, more things to do than you can imagine. Want to go paddleboarding, you can totally do that. Want to go create your own perfume for a day? You can do that. What to go indoor skydiving? You can do that. Want to swing by and see celebrities at a movie premiere? You can do that. Want to rummage through huge treasure filled flea markets? You can do that. There is a scene for every single person out there, whether you're a nerd or a hipster or a druggie or an evangelical Christian, you can find your people in LA.

Los Angeles is also very dirty. There's significant racial tension. There is violence and crime. Police corruption. The traffic makes even the calmest people enraged and murderous. There is a higher concentration of shallow people (but really, only in certain circles).

I love LA. Even with all it's flaws. But I am glad I don't currently live there. It's very nice to visit though.

I currently live about 10 minutes outside of San Francisco.

SF has hippies. People here are very outdoorsy. Everyone hikes or bikes or runs. And everyone has and loves dogs. People are generally mellow and friendly. But probably not midwestern levels of friendly. It's very very beautiful here. I'm sometimes awed by the beauty that is in such easy reach. The food is tremendous. There's a great art culture. A lot of people are very tech-y, half the people you meet will either be starting their own small business or launching a new mobile app or tech company. People can be a little pretentious with their, "oh you don't have vegan soy milk here?" type of thing. Lots of hipsters. Stunning museums and architecture. Lots of fog.

[Pumpkin]

I was born in Ottawa and have spent most of my life within about 40 miles of there, including on the Quebec side. I really liked it.

Now I live in upstate South Caroline. It has lot of trees and one almost city. It's hot.

[kotora]

Right now I live in the most boring place on earth. Over there in the distance is the City. It is salvation in its purest form, a man made paradise where anything is possible. In theory, at least. It's actually a pretty small city. I'm glad I'll be out in the wider world in 2 months.

[Rebellious Eagle]

I live in Plainsboro, New Jersey, and have my whole life. The name looks like a combination of plain and boring, which describes this place perfectly.

[Bolivar]

I love Philadelphia, it's my kind of people, but this City gets poorer and poorer like damn. It can also be hard to find a good restaurant with decent service, although Chinatown's awesome

[Jinx]

I've grown up in Kansas City, Missouri.

We're the meth and human trafficking capitol of the country, so there's that.

[escobert]

I live in a little town called Windsor Vermont. It's nice. Cost of living is a little high here and the jobs aren't that great but it's safe and relatively quiet. We have a pretty decent healthcare system in the state as well as education. I enjoy living with lots of woods and mountain around me

[fire_of_avalon]

I live in Western North Carolina, specifically in a little town called Mars Hill. Mars Hill is named for a geophysical location in ancient Athens upon which the apostle Paul delivered a sermon to convert the Greeks to Christianity. Fittingly enough it has a bunch of churches and a private baptist college called.... Mars Hill College. Apollo Creed came to visit on some of his travels and enjoyed a spectacular sunset, which aren't uncommon. It's a nice little town and not as hateful as most people would imagine a southern town.

Mars Hill is also home to SART, the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater at Owen Theater on the college's campus. One year when I was twelve, the college hosted a haunted house in Owen Theater that was led by a beautiful African American man in drag with a blue wig. The town is a mixture of people. Recently the college has been the source of a lot of crime in the surrounding communities, which is sad. I hope it doesn't stay that way.

SART has a really bad website, but a really great mission and lots of good regional actors come through on occasion. I've seen other things there, aside from beautiful drag-queens. The college also has a large auditorium. Every semester, the county-wide middle school dance & drama and music & band classes hold enormous productions there. I participated in five. I was a forest flower during the performance of Stravinsky's The Firebird, a mirror shard and the play narrator in Anderson's The Snow Queen, a twisting vine in Sleeping Beauty to name a few things. I had great teachers.

Madison County is the greater municipal area for Mars Hill, and it's unusual. There are three major towns including Mars Hill, the other two being Marshall and Hot Springs. Marshall is the county seat and it sits perched on the banks of the French Broad River. The river is a dirty reminder of interstate pollution, which is sad. Thousands, heck hundreds of years ago, it was a lifeline for the region providing food and water for the isolated residents. It's getting better, but it's still along way from what it used to be. The trains that come through only carry freight now which is a sad thing. In the 20's, river cities and towns were thriving places, full of people. I hope the trains carry people through the mountains again someday. There's some beautiful things to see along the tracks. Not that I have broken federal law and walked them... and Hot Springs is truly an entire post unto itself.

As you may have figured out, when someone starts to talk about this place, it's hard to focus only on the towns and cities in a standalone way. I'm from Mars Hill, but due to the nature of economic growth in the region, I don't spend much time here. The best jobs are in and around Asheville which is the closest city to me and largest in WNC. I have a ~45 minute commute every weekday to a new doctors practice in Enka, a suburb of Asheville. It's a long haul, and it's death to your fuel economy, but I'm used to the ride. It gives me time to myself, which I lack nowadays. Asheville is... unique. So unique it's difficult for me to come up with a metaphor that would properly describe all of the city's attributes. It's artistic. It's organic. It's fueled by peaceful protests, redneck bars, hillbilly music, art, history, beer... I could go on and on and labels would still not suffice to describe how weird and joyful and terrible it is. I defy any of you to visit and not fall in love with something there.

But even bigger than that is the region. I live on the outskirts of The Pisgah National Forest on the north-east side of a steep valley that's heavily wooded. I can get lost in my own backyard. Or I can get lost in someone else's front yard. At any point in time I am mere steps away from an ecology that is older than my lineage, I can wade in a creek that ancestors I never knew used to irrigate their crops. I can lean on a maple that my great grandpa planted before his children were born. I can stumble into bear-wallows, I can look out over valleys carved eons ago by tectonic shifts, I can eat wild strawberries straight out of the ground. I can say with complete sincerity, that Eden ain't got trout on where I live. (Fun fact, I can walk to those overlooks if the mood struck me.)

This post is entirely too long and probably no one will read it. I just hate the reputation my region has around the world and wanted to even out the good with the bad that everyone already knows. I love it here, despite its flaws.

[Shorty]

I currently live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and it's not terrible. It's without a doubt the most beautiful place in the state. People here are generally laid back and I don't feel as uptight as I do in large cities. I find it easier to meet people here and to make friends because people don't seem as cliquey. Having said that, though, almost everyone here is stereotyped as either having been in trouble with the law/drugs/etc or had a child at a young age. It's really nuts how many young people here have children and then separate. There are two gorgeous lakes in either direction and they are stunning and fun to go to, but I'd take my Utah mountains over lakes any day.

Orem, Utah is my hometown and I miss it dearly. It's grown and changed so much since I left seven years ago. There's nothing like growing up with these surrounding you everywhere you turn:



They give a feeling of comfort and safety, like you're trapped in a little bubble far away from the rest of the world. There are mormon churches everywhere. Everywhere. In the past decade they've started doubling up and putting two one one lot so they can both share parking. The people are nice - almost too nice. The four seasons are lovely - summers aren't too hot, winters get the right amount of snow. I miss it.

[Bunny]

It's without a doubt the most beautiful place in the state.

Idaho in general is pretty, though you are right about Coeur D'Alene being the prettiest place there.

I live in Fort Collins, Colorado. Home of a college, several offices for major software and hardware developers, and, mostly recently, a huge riot.

[Denmark]

I will be moving to State College, PA in the next few months, which I am hoping is significantly better.

as of next week I'll be living in Bethlehem, which is like 3 hours(?) from PSU. we should hang out sometime.

I grew up in Malden Bridge, NY. Someone lost a goat here yesterday.

update: we found the goat wandering in our backyard today. so much excitement.

[Calliope]

I grew up in Tamaki Makaurau. We have lots of birds, and lots of gangs. I never learned to drive because I could take the bus or the train or the ferry anywhere I wanted to go. Xena and Hercules were filmed here. My high school served as the fake high school for our national soap opera. It's a big smurfing deal whenever any major artist tours here. I worked at the biggest library in the country, which was down the street from two rival universities, one of which I was a graduate of.

I would get up in the morning, and get on a bus. An hour to ninety minutes later, I would get off, and walk to work. During my lunch break I would go to the local record shop and scour for records, or go to the art gallery and hang with my friends Ernst and Parekowhai. After work I'd go to the gym, and go to the IMAX, or to a festival, or a gallery opening, or an MTV party, or thrift shopping. I'd probably hang with Rinoabella, and she'd probably give me a ride home after we ate at Wagamama or a Japanese food place. On the weekends I'd go to the zoo or to the park, and eat lentil pies and samosas. My people own land on a small island here. Sometimes I miss this urban lifestyle so much I think I'm going to burst into flames. I regularly miss the birds and my brother so much that it brings me to tears. I wonder when my parents will die.

I now live in a small college town that is known as the city of subdued excitement. I still work in a library, although in a much different role than before. I regularly exhibit art in galleries here, and even have solo shows. I almost never go to the movies, or shopping, but I'm a member of the big art museum now. I'm a respected member of a local writing group, and although there are plenty of local shows I rarely take advantage of them. Every so often I consider joining an improv group. I wish I could bring all of my friends here and show them the sights, from the bar with the fancy cocktails, to the wonderful secondhand bookstores. There is ocean and forest here, but it is different from home. For most of my life, I have felt caught between two opposing states, and this is no exception.

[Shoeberto]

I will be moving to State College, PA in the next few months, which I am hoping is significantly better.

as of next week I'll be living in Bethlehem, which is like 3 hours(?) from PSU. we should hang out sometime.

We totally should make this happen after we're both set up. Gonna be a few months for me.

Also: Even though I hate Dayton, I really do quite like most of Ohio. It's very pretty and quiet, for the most part. Dayton is just terrible. It's where all of the crap collects.

[the_best_noob]

All the EoFFers are coming to me.

I live in Harrisburg, PA. The 20th most dangerous city in the country. Thank god I live in the suburbs. Not much to do here, but HersheyPark is very close, that's an awesome place.

[Jinx]

Omg PA Hershey Park meetup PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ