Californian Geography… A Lesson in Limits (or MY limited lessons in geography)

Being from California has it’s advantages; you grow up differently and with interesting circumstances all around you, but something all Californians share is of a geographical dilemma. Seriously, it’s like all that exists are major metropolitan cities and everything else is a “town” with one main street, one movie theater and one gas station… maybe a little tourist shop too. That’s it. Everyone who lives there must be a farmer or make meth, but anyone who’s “normal” lives in a big city. There you go. I’m a geo-gra-cist.

For example: When I got the call from the HR office of Saatchi & Saatchi X, I thought the job would be in NY. Why? Because that’s where the call was from. When the recruiter asked if I was open to relocation, I said “yes!”, thinking I would be relocated to the Big Apple. When she told me (2 interviews in) that it was in North West Arkansas, I did what any Californian would do; I Google mapped it, with a funny expression on my confused face.

On my trip to AR, I learned a whole lot about our country. I’ve done ONE road trip in my life and at 12, all driving across 13 states in 1 month meant, was missing out on the beach, my tan and the summer I’d worked so hard for. Basically, I missed a lot of information about everywhere other than California.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

There are a lot of cows.

There is a lot of BBQ.

There are a lot of people.

There’s a lot of history (something I enjoy).

Our trip from CA to AR was cool, but once you get into the South, it gets really interesting.

Did you know that people still wave confederate flags? In LA, anyone who flew that flag would be jumped. In AR, there’s a lot of them.

Driving north to Kansas City was a really interesting trip.

It was almost like you could feel the history of the Civil War and all of the racism that existed in the US, up until recent years. There are Battlefield Parks, there are houses that you’d only see in movies… there’s time. Struggle, victory, history.

Tags: arkansas, california, geography, oops