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Welcome to the real America

I moved for a job back in December.  I moved from West Michigan to Central Illinois.  I took a job in low level management in the hopes it would kick start a career that has been lack luster at best.  The career part is the only thing this move has going for it, I am crushing it andy6 proving myself of being worthy to climb the ladder everyday.  But the personal life in central Illinois well......

Maybe it is because I grew up 20 miles from Lake Michigan and spent every weekend at the lake.  Maybe it is the fact that I lived in a Liberal college town in Michigan, or because that same town was 6th in the country in breweries per capita, Kalamazoo MI is a really cool city and now that I have moved away I realize how much I took the amazing nature of that place for granted.  What ever it is living in Central Illinois sucks.

It confounded me back in November that Trump won the Presidency but after seeing what a completely different area of the country is like it actually makes more sense now. 

My new town, Peoria IL, is about as apathetic a place as I can imagine.  There is a general lack of build it yourself mentality around here.  The focus seems to be one of celebrating corporate America everytime it graces the city limits with a new retail outlet, and but for the grace of Corporate America go we.

A better example of what I mean is that both of these cities, plus suburbs, are about the same size but only one of them has a Golden Corral.  The other has a vibrant downtown foodie scene full of local resturanters that have built up a community to be proud of.  Of the later mentioned city, I will be downtown on May 5th for Art Hop and the all night Food Truck Rally.

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