Dear California transplants, we say this with love (and a touch of exasperation): The grass isn't greener elsewhere—you just haven't watered your own lawn. When you flee the problems you helped create, you don't leave them behind. You pack them in your moving van, right between the avocado toast maker and your collection of participation trophies.
You voted for those policies. You supported that ballot measure. You nodded along at the town hall. Now your rent is astronomical and traffic is a waking nightmare? Congratulations—this is called "consequences," and they're excellent teachers. Stay and learn the lesson. Fix what you broke. Democracy isn't a restaurant where you leave when the service gets bad.
Texas, Idaho, Montana, and Arizona aren't your personal escape rooms. These places have cultures, histories, and people who built something before you decided it looked Instagrammable. When you arrive with your California money and California expectations, you don't integrate—you colonize. You price out locals, complain about how things aren't "like back home," then vote for the exact same policies that ruined California. It's groundhog day, but with more expensive housing each loop.
Staying and fixing your problems builds character. Running from them builds... frequent flyer miles. Your new neighbors don't want to hear about how you "had to leave" California while you simultaneously explain why everything should work exactly like California. That's not moving—that's metastasizing.
California didn't become California by abandoning ship every time things got hard. The Gold Rush settlers didn't strike it rich, then immediately move to Nevada and complain about the lack of sourdough. They stayed. They built. They solved problems. Be the pioneer your LinkedIn bio claims you are—stay and innovate your way out of the mess.
We believe: If you loved California enough to live there, love it enough to fix it.
We believe: Your housing crisis is a lesson, not a reason to inflict one on Boise.
We believe: "But the weather's better there" is not a political philosophy.
We believe: Before you pack up and leave, ask yourself: "Will I just recreate the same problems somewhere else?"
We believe: The answer is yes. Yes, you will.
Before any Californian moves to another state, they must sign an affidavit promising not to: complain about the lack of In-N-Out, immediately try to change local politics, drive housing prices up by offering $100k over asking, or say "well, in California we..." more than twice per month.
Better yet: Stay. Vote differently. Engage locally. Plant roots instead of pulling them up every time the wind changes. Your paradise is where you are—you just have to stop exporting the policies that killed it.