South, East and West

I am a southerner at heart. I spent most of my life in the deep south, a Carolina girl. When I moved to California for business school, I was in for a shock. The world is very different in the West Coast. I have never met so many people so ambitious, smart and driven. The pace of life here seems centered around that crazy climb to the top and the goal of amassing your first million by 30. Everyone works crazy hours, and there is generally a work hard, play hard metality. I love the culture of freedom and individualism, but there is something missing. In the south, people start families quite young and by 30 are on their second child. Here in Silicon Valley most people I know would never even think to talk about starting a family until well after 30. I had a friend who told me on her 30th birthday that she was really excited on that day. Know why? Because she had two kids already and now she could say she was "in her thirties". I would never have heard that back in the south. I am several months from 30, and I see how my perspective has changed by living out West. I wonder if people will ask why we waited so long to have a family when we move back East...