Chapter 15: California

Ahhh the greatest state ever! California is always depicted as the ideal place to live. With warm beaches, mountains, attractive people and the elite, how could one resist? These words and pictures are what first come to peoples minds when they think of the sunshine state. Too bad the entirety of the state does not lay on the coast! These are also some of the reasons why this state is so ethnically diverse. Movies, television shows, reality shows and even music conveys California in a most ideal way. I am an only child, so growing up my family has hosted three foreign exchanged students, all from Germany. One of them named Valerie, watched the television show called The O.C while she was in Germany. The show is about a rich white family that lived in orange county. They lived in a mansion looking over the ocean, the kids had bonfires on the beach every night while watching the sunset on the beach. When she heard that she would be coming to California, her mind was full of all of the previously mentioned attributes plus the life of the characters in The O.C. Well, little did she know that Merced was not even close to orange county! Needless to say, Valerie was a little disappointed when she came to the small town of Merced filled with cow pastures, one small mall, and the best sunset view at the local man made lake. My point is that we should not only focus on the stereotypical things that come to mind when we think of California, however we should also keep in mind why we are so ethnically diverse, because we are a land of opportunity.We should also keep in mind and remind others of the scarce water supply and rapid urban expansion. If these two problems do not get some sort of attention in the near future, California may not be the state where everyone wants to end up.

Sunset at Lake Yosemite, Merced. See, its not so bad, right?

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