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I'm from the northeast (NJ) and made a similar, drop everything, load up the car and go move to San Diego at age 22. It was lovely, for the first few months. It was so beautiful. People were certainly friendly and welcoming. And then I started to hate it. Everyone was just so damned blase. It was more than being just "laid back" - it was a complete lack of critical thought, a lack of intellectual engagement with the world. It seems to me that the people who stay in San Diego are trying to avoid challenge - be it social, professional, or environmental. They want everything, and everyone, to be easy to handle and thoughtless. I then moved up to Los Angeles, and had the opposite experience - at first I hated it. People were not welcoming, and at every turn I felt like I was going to get my eye poked out by a big huge breast implant. But then, after a few months, I started to love it. I got past LA's horrible, slick surface, and started to find the thoughtful, creative, real people who live in that city. LA is a challenge - but a worthwhile one. It has most of the weather benefits of San Diego, but in a more stimulating social environment. I'm back in NYC now for family reasons, and while I constantly wish I were back in LA, I never feel that way about San Diego. So, the short of this is - like other posters, I recommend getting away from the intellectual sinkhole that is San Diego before you think you're just a New Yorker who cannot change or adapt to a new place.
