wdydwyd essay

[Amy Kaufmann]

I was born in California on September 20, 1990. I moved to Maryland on June 22, 1999. I consider this one of the most important factors for why am I who I am today. I thought this was the worst day of my life. At the time I could not have hated the decision more, but looking back today I know I that I got the best of both worlds. During my time on the east coast people would say, “You don’t seem like you belong here, you’re such a California girl!” to which I would always respond by saying “Yea, I know. I grew up there.” While I will always have pride in my home state, I also find myself grateful that I moved to the east coast for the portion of time that I lived there. To me, everything about California is amazing except for one thing. Being born in a fairly well off neighborhood in Los Angeles, there was an overwhelming sense of materialism throughout certain groups of people. This obsession with material goods can be, and in the case of many of my childhood friends, is extremely destructive. When I would come to LA to visit in recent years, drug addiction and superficial behavior became more and more prevalent throughout my friends with our increasing age. This brings me back to my comment about having the best of both worlds. While I was lucky enough to have been born and raised in such an amazing town such as Los Angeles, I was also lucky enough to be taken out at the most crucial point. I was raised with the laid back sense of the west coast without being dragged into the downward spiral of materialism that formed during my years on the east coast. When peers and trends became the most important predictor of my values (middle school and high school), I was able to form my moral compass based on a less fast-paced society and focus my ethics on a more realistic world. While the West Coast is my home, the East Coast is soul.