Do You Fit In Where You Live?
 

Okay, about 9 years ago, the family and I moved out to suburbia. To say we're different from the other folks around us would be an understatement.

The wife and I are city folk. Southside of Chicago city folk to be exact. We're used to saying hi to our neighbors and stuff, but this suburban living is whack. Between the "Queen" waves (you know, hand stiff, moving side to side) and the sheer number of conceited assholes we live around, it's driving us nuts. I won't even go into the "screw your neighbor" homeowner's association rules.

Do any of the rest of you experience this? Or, are we just lucky? :lol:

I live in a dorm, so I guess I kinda sorta fits in.

Not a perfect fit, but I'm comfortable.

Living in Austin, TX is amazing. I will never go back to the small town I came from. There is soo much diversity here that its mind boggling, and I feel I fit in perfectly.

We're from the south and currently live in the northeast. I don't think we fit in here, things are very different in the south and we miss it. Not that living here is awful, it's just so fast pace and a different life.

I live in NYC :) not everyone can fit in here.... but there's a place for you if you want to try...

I love Austin! I've lived in Dallas/Fort Worth and in Houston, I never felt like I felt in anywhere but here. Where I went to high school in Houston, they had a *dress code*. When I went to high school here in Austin (Crockett) the joke was that the only dress code rule was "no chain saws" heh.

I used to live in SW Michigan, I really fit in there. Always knew how people were going to react to stuff, everyone was really laid back, it was great. Now I live in Salt Lake City, and people are nuts. You're either a mormon or a mormon-hater, there's no inbetween. I wish they'd all just shut up about it.

Where in Chicago were you? I lived in a condo near Shedd Aquarium for a while.

Oh Hell no...If you want Details, Read my Journal...It's all in there.:)

Edited

i live in sUburbia. i know how it feels to want to get the hell out. i think i could adapt well in the city. it feels like my second home since i'm there all of the time and do my errands in the city :P

I grew up in the suburbs outside of DC. I hated living there and I disliked most of the people. When I go back to visit my parents I can't stop thinking of the wife in American Beauty.....she pretty much sums up most of thos people.

I now live in Boone North Carolina, and I love it. People are honestly friendsly and hospitable. I can walk down the street and wave to strangers, they will smile and wave back. I can even walk up and start a conversation with random people, and most likely they will become new friends.

People don't really have to have their 'guard' up around here, and they aren't super stressed out type A personalities who moved to the suburbs so they will be close to the place where they work 80 hours a week.

I love it.

I live in a dorm, and really don't feel like I fit in at all. All my neighbors are loud, and a little annoying. shit...

I grew up in Seattle but moved to Oregon 11 years ago. Last year I lived in a very small town in California. I did not fit in to the small town nor in to California. Give me Oregon any day -- with a mid-size city and lots of rain.

I live in L.A...hard not to fit in because all types of people live here. But I'm kinda near the Hollywood/Beverly Hills area, where people can be so phony it hurts me to be within a 50-foot radius of them.

I am so NOT into the whole 'hollywood/glamour/I am so important' thing that many people here seem to embrace with all their being.

But not everybody around here's like that, of course. Just lots. :p Still, I think a south bay beach community (still L.A. area) would be much more my thing. Maybe I'll move sometime soon. :)

My Mother, sister and I live in the middle of the 'burbs as well. A punk rock family that listens to loud music drives vintage cars, scooter, and motorcycle does not fit in with a bunch of old people and soccer moms. Which is why we don't know anyone around us and no one ever says Hi. We sleep at home and eat at home... other then that we are in the city.

I forgot to mention that when they drive by, they don't even look at us when they give us the "Queen" wave. Like they're so much better than us that we don't even deserve eye contact.

No. It's too conservative. And it's not next the ocean. To major strikes against it.

i live in a largely conservative neighbourhood.
but that stench of grey poupon isn´t terribly overpowering.

do i fit in?
well, i guess.
since i didn´t go to a local high school, i don´t have too many friends in my neighbourhood, but i have enough.

I'm in a building that's a hybrid between a dorm and an apartment. There's a good enough mix of people, so I don't feel like its populated by any one "type." My dorm last year, however...I think I'd fit in better at a retirement home.

I literally don't fit in. I live in a suburban town that was built by people who really never thought that a 6'8" guy would be living here. And they wonder why I slouch.

I think I def fit in with where I live, and that would be Long Island, NY. I was born and raised here... a few years ago however my parents decided to move us to AZ, but we only stayed there for about 8 months until we realized that there's no place like L. I. and we missed being here. I don't think we fit in too well in AZ anyways... and the heat down there is crazzzyy

I depends on what mood you catch me in.

Mostly I would say yes.
But they wouldn't be able to handle the wild side.

I'm here 'cuz it's a good place to raise a family. I am not a stereotypical suburban mom though--and we have at lot 'em here. They are lacquered and tanned year round, have expensive cars & homes, clothes and manicures. They sneer when they see me, and I just smile. I enjoy being a freak.
I love the city--the suburbs are stale in comparison.
My ideal would be to live in Chicago, if it were moved next to an ocean.

Double D, I feel your pain. I like the description you gave, lacquered and tanned. Don't forget plastic! Last couple of years, it's been let's upgrade our boobies.

I like torturing them too. Listening to loud heavy metal music and taking my shirt off when I cut the lawn. There's nothing like the shocked look of a pretentious, anal retentive suburbanite when I'm getting some sun on my big, fat, and very white belly. :crazy: I get the look that says, "Hey fatboy, put your shirt back on, you're driving down our property values!"

Hey, Chicago is near an ocean, sort of. Lake Michigan is like the ocean, in a big lake sort of way.

I live in a college town where the only thing to do on weekends is drink. I don't drink whatsoever and have no plans to ever start. You can figure out the rest...

I live in a flat in the suburbs close to the city. I get along well with my flatmates, and don't really know the neighbours, except for an old lady next door who I chat to from time to time. She's pretty cool.

I was born and raised in L.A. and now live in Alabama so no.

I moved from a city in Michigan to a town of around 130 people in South Dakota a couple years ago. Whoa, talk about culture shock, my family didnt fit in at all. Had to go to a school where there were 25 kids in my whole grade and the only person that liked me was the girl everyone made fun of. Thank goodness I moved again.

I'm accepted, but not sure I fit in. I live 2 miles outside of my home town of 6000 people. Rural southwest Oklahoma, buckle of the bible belt. I was considered odd going to school here and am now probably considered eccentric.

I am considered to be "tainted" from living in California for a couple of years. One of them damn hippies and a biker to boot.

When I came back from the Navy in 76 I brought one of the first Japanese pick ups any one in town owned. I took a lot of flack for that pickup until the first time there was a gas shortage. Then I got offers for the damn thing. The local Chevy dealer wouldn't get me parts or work on it because he didn't sell the "damn Jap things".

Lots of farmers around here, Menonites live to the East of me. The men still wear hats and the women wear bonnets.

I don't go to church, I don't shave, all three of my girls were raised to think that they are as good as any man.

We also have the "lacquered and tanned" set. I really get on their nerves, it's a hobby. Gimme a break, lacquered and tanned hicks? Many of them have never been out of the state and are about as cosmopoliton as Granny Clampett. Some of them still wear the really big hairdos with tons of hair spray.

Sorry, kind of turned into a rant didn't it? If I lived in Oklahoma City I would probably be just another citizen.

I live in a neighbourhood that's 1/2 middle class retired people and 1/2 government subsidized housing. I don't fit in with the old folks and I sure as hell don't fit in with the roving packs of gangstas. A private school just got built at the end of my street too, so twice a day my street is choked with idling SUVs with Soccer moms all reading the same Danielle Steele novel while waiting for their kids to finish school. My old neighbourhood was so much better, 10 mins away from a university, tons of 20-ish kids and close enough to downtown without being right in the thick of it.

hmmm...no i don't fit in orlando too well...i don't love the "mouse" or the beach...i enjoy cultural activites...which we have none of. the only good thing we have found is our car club family...my husband and i love old skool american muscle, and there is a great group of people here who are the same. i generally have to much fashion sense and am too intelligent for the general masses...it may sound conceited , but if anyone has ever been here, you will understand...it's all shorts and tee shirts...and 50% of the population didn't make it past the 10th grade

I'm a progressive liberal in the capital of Nebraska...

'nuf said. I don't know that if most of us did fit in where we lived if we would have as much time to post here as we do.

A family of liberals in probably one of the most conservative towns in America. I'd say no. And all of the trailer trash and whathave you that we live around. My dad always tells me I would've fit in with him and his hippy friends back a couple decades ago. Oh well, at least I've made friends here that listen to loud music and are pretty liberal as well.

No. As a (very)young professional living in a small town, we hang out with 40 year olds. I'll spare you comparing ourselves to the stereotypes of no teeth, etc..., but most people our age here have several kids already. We live next door to a retired pentacostal minister and a retired insurance guy. They're both in their 70's and both play golf, literally all day, every day. My wife, after her monthly "Bunko" game, said, "You know, they all drive BMW's and have big rings, but they still drink Boones Strawberry Hill."
I recently got together with some of my old classmates, all a year out, and those of us in small towns had about the same experience.

I used to live with my paretns in this ritchy class area .... now i live with 3 other men in kalamazoo Mi which is your typical working class collage town.. and i fit in better hear then i ever did in Grosse pointe. But it all depends on your personality and how well u can cope/adjust to new nabors or seroundings

I fit in so well it gets me laid. WK would get laid here too. Alternative college girls are dumb.

Sometimes I feel that I fit in great in the city here, and other times I feel like a total outsider.

Its all how you wake up, really....

I think I'm actually a SLC Non-mormon who doesn't hate the dominant religion here. They do stuff that annoys me, but I mostly get over it.
As far as fitting in where I live, I am right next to the University. so its almost like living in a party town. The best part is the people I live with, I have known them all for 6+ years.
Having said that, I don't think I am going to be in Utah much longer, 24 years is enough, I want to explore.

My neighborhood is nothing but elderly folks. With the exception of the house next door where a younger family moved in after the elderly couple passed away (:() a few years back, there is no one on my block under 60. I really only socialize with a few of them, but I guess I do fit in... kinda scary actually. I've always gotten along better with people older than myself, probably through some deluded self image of maturity :rolleyes:

That's why I moved back to Oklahoma City. I can fit in anywhere, but there are always things about a community that it takes years to figure out. OKC is that place for me.

I've lived in the same state for 26 years and in the same town for 18 or so of those years. I guess I fit in here as well as anywhere else I've seen. My town is a Northwoods town of pop 10,000. I remember when we got our first department store "Walmart"

If I ever moved to the city I'd need to find me a buddy to learn the ropes with. lol I've never even ridden in a taxi let alone flagged one down. Been to Chicago twice and got tension migranes both times.

I've never felt like I quite fit anywhere. My ideas aren't exactly Mainstream. Being raised very religiously and then becoming swingers - there aren't too many people around with that kind of thinking. Also being a teacher, mom, breatfeeder (still at 3 yrs old), self employed... I don't have too many around with the same type of value structure. I just do my own thing and don't worry about it anymore. My lack of "fitting in" was why I got in fights in school. It's how I make the world work for me now.