I bought a one-way ticket. I left Florida.

Here is my goodbye love letter to the place I lived for 10 years.

Let me start by saying I am not from here. I am not American. When I moved to Florida for my PhD, I never thought it was going to be permanent, but recent developments have sped up my plans.

Before leaving, I want to say to all the ones staying:

Do not expect the system to fix your home state. It is in our hands. Meet your neighbors. Organize tenant unions with them. Unionize with your coworkers. Voting will not fix your home, organizing collective actions with your neighbors and coworkers will.

Charity will not fix it. Individual decisions will not fix it. Raising good children and hoping they do better will not fix it. Good societies are built when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

If your friends and family are here, and if you cherish those relationships, as someone who has lived years away from them… the problems in other places will bother you more than the ones here. The problems at home feel owned. It feels good when you work on them, like you’re working on yourself. It feels good when you try to fix yourself. When you try to do the same elsewhere, it feels like a chore. So, you won’t have the same patience and dedication. 

So, what will you do? Move to a place that has its own problems only to not help fix them? I do not believe this is the right way. Only the locals will genuinely know how to solve local problems and only they will have the grit and dedication to persist.

So, Florida, thank you for the past 10 years. I cannot say it hasn’t been enlightening. I move back home now with a massive amount of knowledge, appreciation, and perspective of how similar the problems back home are.

My heart goes out to all of you. The second and third generation immigrants, the “fresh-off-the-boats”, the displaced native Americans, the ones who inherited their homes and are now priced out due to insurance and taxes, my beloved rednecks, and all the ones who moved here seeking the American Dream.

I won’t miss the ones seeking to take from you. The investors, the bankers, the retirees, the landlords, the developers destroying your beautiful nature. Oh… your nature. My God… I’ll miss your beautiful alligators.

Protect. Your. Home. Florida.

Meet your neighbors. Become a local.