Growing up as a military brat, I was one of many people in the country who spent time outside of my state of birth, keeping myself out of the “stuck belt” some find themselves in. I got to experience living on the west coast (NorCal), on the east coast (Pennsylvania), the southwest (Arizona), the midwest (Michigan), and then back to the west coast again (SoCal). This semi-nomadic childhood meant a lot of things to me, but chiefly it meant that I got to see much more of the country than most other kids might get to before the age of 11. My mom made sure that wherever we went, we would see everything there was to see, because my mom foresaw that she was raising a couple of little history nerds in my brother and I.
Having returned to California for more than a decade, however, now that I’m back on the east coast for an internship the differences between the coasts are more striking than ever. At the age of ten, being told that California was the place you could go to the mountains and the beach on the same day seemed to be all the difference between the Land of Corn and Cars (trademarked). But now that I’m 22, I can see why people say that the coasts have such different cultures. Going from the world of California casual even at fancy restaurants, to a place where no outfit is complete without a peacoat or a bridge coat is intimidating to say the very least.
That’s not the only culture shock, obviously. Although jaywalking in California is now only a punishable offense if you’re getting in the way of an oncoming car, the residents of Washington DC seem to have it down to a science, timing the exact right time to cross the street when there are no cars around. As someone who still hasn’t even adjusted to California’s new law, seeing folks here confidently cross the street on a red is something that is going to take me a long time to get used to.
Apart from the weather, which of course is different from the desert I’m used to living in all year round, the biggest difference I’m still trying to navigate is the difference in speech! Although my friends tell me that occasionally traces of my former midwest accent come through, if you listen to me speak for more than three minutes it’s pretty clear that I’ve spent a good chunk of my life in California – the “like”s, “um”s and “totally”s speak for themselves. I’ll even throw a “hella” in there for good measure. Getting comfortable with my cadence has been one of the more daunting elements of returning to the east coast – although there is a regional dialect as there is in every state and region, it’s hard not to feel like a negative stereotype of California and feel dumber, when that’s not even close to the case!
Being a working professional in a new city and a new region is definitely a bit of a curveball, but despite the differences and the slight culture shock, I’m finding myself enjoying this opportunity to explore a new space as a young woman and seeing what makes me unique in this new space that is standard back home.
