After only spending half of my summer as an intern in Charleston, South Carolina, I can tell you that living in the Pacific Northwest and the South will have you experiencing two completely different cultures. In addition to the intense heat and terrible humidity, these two places have shown me two entirely different ways of living, and I have to say, the PNW does it better.
1. Not
everyone wears the same thing.
People in the PNW have
access to clothes besides boat shoes, polos and colored shorts. Maybe it’s
also because we have stores other than Lilly and Nordstrom.
2. We
have all four seasons.
We get
to experience all four of the beautiful seasons, sometimes in the span of five
minutes.
3. There
are things to do besides boat.
First,
I don’t understand the weird obsession with boating in the southern states.
Second, the PNW gets skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing and pretty much any
other activity you could think of.
4. We’re
not passive aggressive.
Forget
trying to hide our rude sides with “How nice,” or “Bless your hear.” If someone
from the PNW has a problem, we’ll let you know and work to fix it.
5. We
have a wider range of music.
For
some reason, the south is primarily country and rock music (which by the way, is
killing me). We have anything from massive EDM festivals and small indie bands all the way to giant festivals. Which leads to ...
6. We
have AWESOME music festivals.
Okay
yeah, the deep south has some awesome festivals, but the PNW gets everything
from Paradiso, Watershed, Rock Hard At The Park to Bumbershoot which lets us get a taste of every type of music.
7. We
live in a beautiful area.
Mountains.
Mountains everywhere. Forget that drab, flat, lifeless landscape. In the PNW, we
are blessed with mountains, caves, and yes, lakes that are NOT man-made.
8. Our
food is amazing.
Now I
can’t deny the south has some great food, but it doesn’t come close to
competing with ours. Anything from fresh seafood, awesome burgers and even
vegan meals, the PNW has your food needs locked down.
9. Awesome
wildlife everywhere.
You
want bears? We got bears. You want elk or moose? Yep, we got those too. The
only thing we don’t have are the alligators, but I don’t think we want them.
10.The
bugs are not the size of children.
When
you hit a bug with your car in the PNW, it doesn’t sound like you just hit a
small animal. Also, we don’t have roaches. Thank. God.
11. Not
everything is trying to poison you.
The
south is like the Australia of the USA. Every bug and snake seems to be poisonous
and dangerous. Up north, bugs are more annoying than they are life-threatening.
12. We
don’t have as many mosquitoes.
I
don’t have to explain why this is awesome.
13. Coffee.
Coffee everywhere
Something
that seems unique to the PNW are our coffee stands. And no, not a coffee shop.
Our drive-up coffee stands have amazing coffee at convenience and low cost, perfect
for everyone too lazy to wait in line at Starbucks.
14. If you
want peace and quiet, you get peace and quiet.
If one
day the city is just too much for you, driving an hour in any direction in the
PNW will land you somewhere where you can just stop and think, usually with an
awesome view too.
15. The
people are the best of the best.
I’ve
traveled around a lot, and never have I met a better group of people then those
I’ve found in the PNW. But I mean, I could be a little biased.
