On being an Oregonian in California
There is a lot of discussion about Californians in Oregon (and trust me, I have my own controversial opinions on that), but there is a lot less discussion about Oregonians in California - probably because there are fewer of us for a number of reasons (moving upstream economically to a more expensive place, not as many Oregonians total, etc).
At Stanford, I find I hang out mostly with first generation college kids, Oregonians, and Midwesterners. Inadvertently. There is something important about being a firstgen kid at a fast-paced elite university, and there are a lot of similarities between the Midwestern towns Stanford pulls from and Portland (Minneapolis, anyone?). But Oregonians tend to understand me more, and I thought it was a coincidence. Maybe it isn't.
Being an Oregonian in California is kind of weird. When people hear I'm from Portland, they don't understand what that means. They think it's really cool (which it is) but I'm assigned more credit than I deserve for it. Portland is bohemian and hipster and "cool" and all that, true. But the fact that I grew up there does not necessarily mean I subscribe to that lifestyle. It means I remember the spring break quake and I remember the flood of 96 and recycling is natural to me and schools are a mediocre institution.
There is less interconnectedness between Oregon and the rest of the country as there is with California. When California makes state policy, it actually influences the nation. If Oregon were to make a big influential policy change, the rest of the country wouldn't react so much. Think about when California required car companies to provide electric vehicle options. The companies complied. I question if they would have done the same for the 2 million (at the time) people in Oregon.
The employers in Oregon are very local-focused so there is less travel. The universities are not as prestigious (U of O vs Berkeley?) and have smaller endowments/research funds. So few people make it out of Oregon, it seems. As a result, there are very few Oregonians at Stanford.
As much as I love Oregon and Portland, every day I spend away from it I realize how small it is, and how uneducated. And I can't fault Oregonians for that - it's a less advantageous situation for them than for those who grew up in the ridiculously resource-full and educated Bay Area. But could I stand ever living there again. It's like being partially closed off to the rest of the world compared to living in the Bay Area (or likely other places too).
Maybe I'm just a snob now. My friends studying economics at other universities study finance and accounting. We don't have those programs because we study how to influence international trade policies and things like that. The standard job upon graduating is working in consulting, not for the cities of Sherwood or Newberg. Newberg? Newburg? I don't even remember how to spell it anymore.
But I'm not a Californian. I could never be one. I'm an Oregonian because that's where I'm from and I have native Oregonian experiences and values and mentality and all that. But I'm losing connection to my state by getting all these opportunities I couldn't have back home. And I don't know if I could ever close my life off to these opportunities again. I don't want to have to dumb down my speech ever again. I don't want to have to calmly and patiently explain to friends' parents back home how studying health biology and economics can actually work together (healthcare consulting, anyone? public health? Government health policy?) But every time I go back home I just want to stay there and work to make it better. Oh well, maybe with the influx of Californians to Oregon it will become just North California :-/
At Stanford, I find I hang out mostly with first generation college kids, Oregonians, and Midwesterners. Inadvertently. There is something important about being a firstgen kid at a fast-paced elite university, and there are a lot of similarities between the Midwestern towns Stanford pulls from and Portland (Minneapolis, anyone?). But Oregonians tend to understand me more, and I thought it was a coincidence. Maybe it isn't.
Being an Oregonian in California is kind of weird. When people hear I'm from Portland, they don't understand what that means. They think it's really cool (which it is) but I'm assigned more credit than I deserve for it. Portland is bohemian and hipster and "cool" and all that, true. But the fact that I grew up there does not necessarily mean I subscribe to that lifestyle. It means I remember the spring break quake and I remember the flood of 96 and recycling is natural to me and schools are a mediocre institution.
There is less interconnectedness between Oregon and the rest of the country as there is with California. When California makes state policy, it actually influences the nation. If Oregon were to make a big influential policy change, the rest of the country wouldn't react so much. Think about when California required car companies to provide electric vehicle options. The companies complied. I question if they would have done the same for the 2 million (at the time) people in Oregon.
The employers in Oregon are very local-focused so there is less travel. The universities are not as prestigious (U of O vs Berkeley?) and have smaller endowments/research funds. So few people make it out of Oregon, it seems. As a result, there are very few Oregonians at Stanford.
As much as I love Oregon and Portland, every day I spend away from it I realize how small it is, and how uneducated. And I can't fault Oregonians for that - it's a less advantageous situation for them than for those who grew up in the ridiculously resource-full and educated Bay Area. But could I stand ever living there again. It's like being partially closed off to the rest of the world compared to living in the Bay Area (or likely other places too).
Maybe I'm just a snob now. My friends studying economics at other universities study finance and accounting. We don't have those programs because we study how to influence international trade policies and things like that. The standard job upon graduating is working in consulting, not for the cities of Sherwood or Newberg. Newberg? Newburg? I don't even remember how to spell it anymore.
But I'm not a Californian. I could never be one. I'm an Oregonian because that's where I'm from and I have native Oregonian experiences and values and mentality and all that. But I'm losing connection to my state by getting all these opportunities I couldn't have back home. And I don't know if I could ever close my life off to these opportunities again. I don't want to have to dumb down my speech ever again. I don't want to have to calmly and patiently explain to friends' parents back home how studying health biology and economics can actually work together (healthcare consulting, anyone? public health? Government health policy?) But every time I go back home I just want to stay there and work to make it better. Oh well, maybe with the influx of Californians to Oregon it will become just North California :-/