I've been living in Portland for more than seven years now and made a firm decision a while back to not be ashamed of the fact that I'm from California because, like literally every single one of us, I had no say in where I was born. Both sides of my family were poor, migrant farmworkers who moved to the northern Sacramento Valley in the 60s because of the abundance of agricultural work. The corner store in my hometown served jojos when I was a kid, and the local antique shop is owned by a really nice woman from southern Washington, so I'm positive we had a good handful of people from the Pacific Northwest make their way down there as well. Just like literally every state in this country, there are good things about it and there are things that aren't so great, and I refuse to feel bad about where I come from.