I spent the first 18 years of my life in Vermont, and then I left. Despite having not really been back there for any extended period of time for well over a decade, I still find comfort when I see things like mountains covered in snow (go mt rainier) or large quantities of water (puget sound and lake washington).

Beyond the scenery, I enjoyed the typical Vermonter's fixation on economics. In the middle of the Northeast Kingdom (fsck'ing NYC wannabes), a factory makes helmets for our soldiers in Iraq. So some reporters thought it'd be good to visit and see what the workers thought about the war:

"Seems like an awful lot of money to be spending someplace else."
-- unknown worker

And she said that despite having a job because of the war.

So it makes me happy when I see graphs like this, even though I silently miss those sentiments....

My first 18 years of my life were spent in California. I had never been to a Walmart until I moved to Indiana for school. -- Melissa

After high school, I went to Germany and Austria for a bit and got freaked out by how old things were (people using this church for over a thousand years, etc.). I flew back to go to school in Sarasota, Florida where the first thing I saw was a neon drive-thru church. Culture Shock!!!