Being a native Californian and going to school out of state has been an amazing experience. I have found that many people who haven’t really had a “Californian experience” think so many different things about how California is and how its residents act. Media has given California a funny stereotype, and people who have never been to California or who have little experience with Californians somewhat believe these stereotypes. They go as followed:
1. We all love the beach.
False. Not everyone loves the beach! Personally, I live about a half hour from the beach and rarely actually go lay out on the sand or in the water. It’s also good to remember that California has an inland; it doesn’t all border the ocean. Not every Californian has the chance to see the beach every month or even every year. The coast is beautiful, and most of us probably take it for granted, but we can’t all love it.
2. We all can surf.
False. Obviously if we don’t all love the beach, we don’t all know how to surf. From my experience living on the California coast, there are very few people I know who can actually catch a wave. Many of us have tried surfing maybe once or twice, but the majority of us can’t really surf.
3. We are all Mexican food critics.
True. We are probably more picky about our Mexican food than actual Mexicans. No Mexican food is better than our California Mexican food, except maybe if you cross the border. If we have bad Mexican food, we won’t be afraid to let everyone know it.
4. We see celebrities all the time.
False. Now if you go to California, specifically Los Angeles, your percentage of running into a famous person probably goes up, but it’s still pretty rare. Also, it’s not like we all spend every day in LA (even though all the traffic might make you think otherwise).
5. Most of our lives are spent sitting in traffic.
True. Speaking of traffic, if you are on a main freeway during rush hour, or even if you are near a big city like San Francisco or San Diego, there will almost always be traffic. The one exception for this is maybe if you’re driving between the hours of two and four in the morning. Pretty much any other time there will be at least some traffic.
6. We don’t know what cold weather is like.
False. Mostly. Because of the drought and usual 75-degree weather, people tend to forget that it does actually snow in California. In fact, California is home of the United States city that most often has freezing temperatures, Bodie, Calif. It’s also home of the city with the fourth-coldest temperatures in the U.S., Truckee, Calif. So just because many places in this state are hot doesn’t mean it all is. For the people that do live in these places though, cold is 60 degrees. That’s considered warm in a majority of the other states.
7. We flip out when it rains.
8. We eat In-N-Out all the time.
False. In-N-Out is great, but I probably get it once every two months or so. After all, it is fast food. Californians just brag about how good it is to out-of-staters simply to make them jealous.
9. We are all pretty “chill.”
False. Californians tend to have the stereotype of being super-chill, “hang loose” people who don’t really have responsibilities and just hang out at the beach and tan. While this is maybe true of a very small majority of us Californians, most Californians, like everyone else, have responsibilities that we do care about!
10. We are always tanning/tan.
True. Because it’s usually sunny in many parts of California, the majority of us are tanner than people in colder parts of the country. But obviously, that doesn’t mean we are all tan! Being tan usually has to do with ethnicity in addition to exposure to the sun. We have our fair share of pale people in the Golden State.
11. We all talk like this:
FALSE. Sorry to let all your die-hard "SNL" fans down, but I have yet to meet a person who REALLY talks like this. You might note a little accent, but nothing this severe!
So there you have it, folks.
