I ain’t from these parts

I’m not from Raleigh. I moved here in March 2006 from Miami, FL. Before that it was San Francisco, before that San Juan, Puerto Rico and before that Boston, MA. Why should anyone care? Beats me. I just like mentioning it.

I DO think that being an outsider provides you with a fresh view of the surroundings and allows you to see things how they really are. Example: when I moved to Miami from San Francisco I was frankly disappointed at the amount of litter on the otherwise lovely South Beach. When I brought this up to friends of mine who had lived in Miami for years, they couldn’t understand what I was talking about … they saw past it. Maybe the exposure to the sun had burned out a the part of their retina that allows you to see trash on the ground, but I always thought it was interesting to see how people adapt to their environments.

Another example: I grew up in Boston … 30 degrees BELOW zero was considered cold but no big deal really. Just another thing to complain about (along with how the Red Sox would never win another World Series and how the Patriots ‘suck’ ... ahhh, how times have changed). In any case, I could never understand how people not from Boston always complained about the winters … that is until I moved to San Juan and realized that I must have either grown up under the influence of hard drugs or had simply adapted to my environment.

So, while I have not yet fully adapted to this part of the country, let me share some observations and then see how I feel about these things in a year or so.
1. The inner/outer beltline convention is the most confusing thing I’ve ever seen.
2. There is NO bad traffic in the Triangle area … even going to Cary from Raleigh in what is considered ‘rush hour’ is a piece of cake compared to most every other city in this country.
3. There is a TON of cultural diversity here… I’ve met someone from almost every continent of planet earth in this town and I couldn’t be happier about that.
4. Get over it … you’re REALLY friendly people in general. Take pride in it … its refreshing and its the way it should be.
5. I’m impressed with what I’ve seen from the ‘creative’ community here and I hope to become part of that. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the local design community or from the local art scene, but I come across new and interesting designers and artists EVERY day here and they have blown me away in the way that they think and work and just with their general attitude.

I’m excited to become a part of that… and that’s one of the things that I AM looking forward to adapting to in this new environment.

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