West Coast Best Coast

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Not only were the people of California completely alien and amazing to me, the weather was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It rained a total of fifteen days during my first year in California. In Washington D.C., the hot, summer rains mixed with humidity made your skin feel like it was covered in a thick coat of slime. I personally can not stand rain, and after my first year in Orange County, you probably could not have paid me a million dollars to move back to Washington D.C. Another wonderful thing about California’s weather was the complete absence of humidity. I didn’t even know this was possible on our planet. Growing up in Washington D.C., I remember the summer days being so humid that I would choose to stay at home inside our air conditioned house instead of going to the community pool and hanging out with all of my friends. In California, it is legitimately perfect weather year round. I resigned myself to the fact that I was okay without having seasons. I could always drive one hour from the beach in the winter and be in the snowy mountains anyways. However, there was another thing that I hated more than rain, and that was bugs. Bugs were a massive problem for me while I was growing up in Washington D.C. Along with the humidity came mosquitoes, and I am allergic to mosquitoes. I am not deathly allergic to them, but the area where I got bit would swell and get ten times as itchy as would a normal person’s reaction to a mosquito bite. Furthemore, California had no bugs or humidity, and as a result, did not have the presence of those awful insects called mosquitoes.

I was completely sold on this idea of California. The sunshine tanned my skin perfectly like the skin of those people I had been so completely in awe of when I first arrived. The picture-perfect weather allowed me to spend most of my free time outside on the sand that I loved so much. To this day, I get a little disappointed when I walk outside and it is not 70 degrees and sunny. I was grateful for the experiences I had on the east coast growing up, but I had always felt a little too laid back for Washington D.C. I always had a very calm nature and consider myself a very relaxed, free-spirited person. The west coast and California quickly proved to be the perfect fit, and coast, for me.