I was browsing some photos of California, and I could not stop thinking how amazing it must be to live there. I've been lucky enough to visit the state twice in my lifetime, and both trips were unbelievably fun. When I returned to Texas, it was like stepping back into an empty room. It was just mile after mile of sprawl - house, house, house, store, house, house, house, store. Within a reasonable distance, there are no places of historical interest, no locations of natural beauty (can't be helped since Texas is mostly prairie up north), even the downtown districts are boring.

But the photos were incredible. Natural beauty, dense urban areas with skyscrapers, beautiful graffiti art, a dash of sprawl, abandoned buildings.

Texas is by no means a bad place to live. It's inexpensive living at its best, and many Californians are moving here as well because of this. But the problem is that it's living distilled down to an industrial scale. It's unnatural. It just seems like all there is to do is just work, work, work and then shop shop shop, because within a reasonable distance, that's all there is - buildings for working and stores for shopping. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that would broaden my horizons, nothing that would spark my creativity, nothing that I saw in those photos. It just seems like there's so much diversity in every aspect of life in California. And so many great new ideas start in California - bands, tech startups, other businesses, etc., all of which I attribute to the atmosphere of the state. That and the continuous stream of feel good sunshine.

Of course, the photos were only of select scenes that were exceptional in some way, but even considering this fact, none of them can really be found in Texas.