East Coast = Beast Coast
On Fridays, I often post with the #FightMeFriday hashtag. I offer up a definitive opinion and dare people to fight me.Sometimes, I'm very serious:
Dec. 16, 2016:Emily Hampshire as Jennifer Goines has far surpassed Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines in the TV version of 12 Monkeys vs the Terry Gilliam movie.Also, Amanda Schull > Madeline Stowe.
Other times I'm a little goofier:
April 21, 2017: "Old-fashioned" text emoji are better and faster than going to the emoji keyboard on your phone. #fightme #fightmefriday(Note: This does *not* apply to gifs and stickers, which are always better.)
Sometimes, I'm a little bit of a troll:
April 28, 2017:The East Coast > The West Coast
I've never officially lived on the West Coast, though my parents did move to Riverside County, California, when I was in college. So I spent time there on breaks, though I wouldn't ever claim it as a home, as it wasn't a significant amount of time.I have lived in all four time zones in the Lower 48 states, however, as I lived in Arizona and they don't do daylight savings time (except the Navajo Nation, which is nearly a quarter of the state in landmass), so half the year we were in the Mountain zone and half the year in Pacific, which made for really confusing TV viewing and time zone conversion. (I grew up in the Eastern zone and went to college in Central.)As a native of the New York metro area, I have a strong bias to New York, though I'm glad I lived all over the U.S. and appreciate its varied beauty.I also know that people choose to live in different places for different reasons. When we lived out West, I loved all the hiking and camping we could do, and how easy it was to get away from the city and people. The beauty of the American Southwest is unparalleled, as well. Having easy access to the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Sonoran Desert and the Rocky Mountains is pretty spectacular, truth be told.I always knew I'd end up back in the New York area, but that's just me. I like being able to walk places, I like the no bullshit attitude and, as far as New York City goes, you cannot find anywhere with the diversity of food, languages, architecture and culture that you'll find here. Not that we don't have our problems, of course.I do appreciate a lot about the West Coast - just not my cup of tea. My friends who commented in defense of the West Coast brought up In-N-Out (fair, but if that's all you got, c'mon, fam). It's funny that the Biggie vs Tupac discussion got a bit more heated than the racial diversity question - though in the end, we agreed that both coasts leave a lot to be desired and we have to think of them as outside the metropolitan areas (though in honesty, I was thinking outside the metro areas - both coasts are far more diverse than we tend to believe they are, mostly because of how segregated we still are).So, I do believe the East Coast is better than the West Coast - for me. If the West is better for you, then it's better for you. And if the middle of it all is where your jam is, that's best for you.I've written before about how I love traveling around, and I'll be going to Fort Worth, San Luis Obispo and Sacramento (again) soon. They may not seem like the most glamorous of places, but I'd never been to Sacramento before and it's a lovely city. I haven't been to SLO since I was a little kid, and I've never stepped foot in Fort Worth before (I have been to Daley Plaza in Dallas, though). That's exciting - I'll get to see new places and experience new things, some of them through the eyes of friends who live there.So, whatever coast (or non-coast) is your home - so long as it's where you want to be, it's the best, isn't it?Image via StockUnlimited.