I took a trip to Colorado this summer and it was the first time in my life I ever really left the south. It just blew my fucking mind. I love where I'm from, but there's just so much fucked up shit that I just thought was how it was. I'm a white cishet, so I'm not vulnerable to the worst of the south, but it absolutely blew my mind seeing somewhere that you didn't just have a background level of distressing shit in view at all times. The most striking thing was how there weren't any ruins around. You get used to seeing overgrown, dilapidated buildings dotting the side of the road pretty much everywhere you go. It was wild to me how rare that was, comparatively, once you get to the other side of Texas. There's a million other things, but honestly I didn't spend enough time there to really know if all of them are the norm or if I'm just making shit up. As shitty as I feel saying it, it would also be nice to try dating somewhere there weren't quite so many ""country"" girls.

My only regret would be leaving behind all my friends and family. That's just such an insane leap to me, and I have no faith that I'd be able to find new friends elsewhere now that I'm out of college. I know I'm experiencing a massively cliche impulse and all that, and that there's lots of problems that will follow you wherever you move, but how do I know if I'm insane or not? Does anybody have advice for trying to find a job somewhere you don't live? I'm sick of all these damn pine trees.

  • ape [she/her]
    ·
    11 months ago

    i moved here from the deep south. it’s hard to deny it’s better here overall, i don’t feel like half the people i encounter want to kill me on the spot for being visibly trans. but it would also be lying to say this is not a place ravaged by libertarian politics. every imaginable horror of a hands-off government approach is on full display. meanwhile i feel like the south is very much You Get What You See. despite all the lilting from outsiders that southerners are two-faced, i never felt that’s true. i guess it depends on what’s important to you. i felt connected to the land in the south… i could never feel that way here.

    that said, check out the colorado climate corps. awesome fulfilling work and the pay is… ok. there are for sure places even in denver you could make it work. and i suspect it’ll set you up well for future, better-paying work and introduce you to people you might vibe with.

    • Dolores [love/loves]
      ·
      11 months ago

      but it would also be lying to say this is not a place ravaged by libertarian politics

      TABOR was supposed to be a national/multi-state program to kill 'big government' and it's worked so fucking poorly in the only state it was implemented in that nobody else has taken the dive, lmao. Texas and Kansas like their nice roads too much for the rugged FREEDOM of the Colorado way (completely emaciated, rotting infrastructure)