My view of California before starting this course is a sunny, beautiful, happy, carefree place and those views are partly due to the fact that I visited it nine years ago. During my visit I concluded that I would eventually move there when I was ready to start a family. My visit to California had left a tainted image in my mind, an image of a place where I could leave all my worries behind in the hope of seeing it again, but what left me speechless is the fact that I have no memory of particular events that lead me to this strange obsession with the State. When I first visited California I was 13, and at thirteen there's not much you can do there, your options are very limited. My mom and I stayed at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles for an event where we did the basic sightseeing, but noticing the extraordinary, so why am I so obsessed with the state? Physically, California is a beautiful place with lots of space. Downtown Los Angeles was not like typical city centers like Chicago, New York, or even Atlanta, but it was more spacious and “clean.” I haven't seen as much public transportation around as the typical cities with a high population rate often gather, which means less traffic and noise. California, for many of us, is like the Promised Land to the Israelites, a place of complete bliss, joy and peace. While there, I found myself at peace, and when I returned to Chicago, to O'Hare Airport, I felt as if my peace had been interrupted, interrupted by loud horns honking at pedestrians and large buses taking up huge amount of space. I found myself agitated and annoyed as I longed to return to California, where I could save my peace. Oddly enough, I brought back no eventful memories of... paper heartlands... and economically disadvantaged ghettos. These events are essential to understanding how the United States is rapidly following in California's wake while serving as a model for other nations. Residents who believed they had arrived in their Promised Land soon realized that they were in hell because natural disasters began to occur, natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and floods constantly plagued California and all other types of devastating tragedies such as pollution, poverty, riots, fiscal limitations, spending limits, bans on similar actions, harsh laws and denial of services to illegal immigrants. On the surface California appears to be a fantastic place with endless opportunities, but underneath it all it is one of the biggest disappointments ever, and if we follow a state like California we will become a disappointment ourselves.