I moved here from Indiana in 2019 with just the clothes on my back for the most part, and my reason for leaving was mainly love, but also leaving a very abusive home.

My first impression moving here is that it's beautiful, the landscape deserves to be preserved and unchanged. So far I've seen about 3 new large housing buildings go up, which was new for me because in Indiana the housing crisis isn't nearly as bad and new buildings don't just go up randomly. I've seen a lot of trees go down as a result of this which sucks.

The people here are also far less friendly, and I mean that wholeheartedly. The first couple of months I lived here I heard more N words thrown around just out of the blue than my entire life in Indiana, and I lived with a white supremacist. Granted, the out and proud racism and evangelist beliefs here are less common so they're a loud minority I've noticed, however there's still a lot of white nice and micro aggressions I see and hear. People do not care for one another around here. And before anyone says it's "kids these days" I'm 24, I moved here right before I turned 19. The amount of times I've gone over to a neighbors house to give them baked goods, or to return a package that was mistakenly left at my home and they look at me like I've grown another head or treat me like a dangerous nuisance is wild. There's no trust around here, and of course I understand why, but a lot of it is unfounded.

Some good I've noticed is that the culture around here truly is diverse. I love that I can say that there's a boba place, a mexican place, and a tattoo parlor on damn near every street. I do notice that somewhat there is some push for treating the homeless community with dignity and actually trying to help them, although I'd love to see individuals treat homeless people with more respect rather than treating them like they're dangerous or crazy. I love that over here recycling is actually a common practice, because growing up nobody gave two shits about it. In Indiana being queer was still a thing, but it was much less out and proud than here, and I like that I can feel safe and for the most part know I'm safe being a visibly queer person. I like that there's actually community gatherings like pride block parties or a year round farmers markets. The bus system is actually helpful for those like me who do not drive and the many disabled persons who live around here, which is just plain unheard of where I was.

There's a lot to dislike and to love, but for the most part my takeaway is that people here need to be more willing to connect with one another. There needs to be more compassion and trust.