surrounded by douchebags

i went to austin, texas recently for about a week with some friends of mine. a good time was had by all. one of the observations i made about austin is that the people there were really nice to us. the people of austin seemed to generally be friendlier people that i am usually accustomed to.

so then i come back to jersey where douchebaggery seems to be more in style. and i found myself wondering why do people in austin seem so much nicer than they do around here? a part of me thought maybe i just wasn't there long enough to get to know the bad side of austin. i'm sure somewhere under that cover of hospitality is a whole underbelly of jerks and douchebags hiding from my sight.

but then i started to think about every other time i travel outside of jersey. i've been to new orleans, las vegas, montreal, buffalo, los angeles, and colorado springs, all within recent years and everywhere i went people were straight up nicer than they are in my area (when i say my area, i'm thinking nj/nyc).

could it be that people weren't nicer everywhere i went? maybe that's just the norm as far as people go. maybe my area is below average. maybe the average person around here is just a bigger douchebag than the average person elsewhere.

and why not? look at the area i live in. it's densely populated to the point where it feels like people on top of people. there's constant noise and sirens and never a dull moment which may work against us. they call new york city the city that never sleeps. but have you seen what a lack of sleep does to someone's attitude? it's all one big clusterfuck of a rat race... an overcrowded rat race where the competition is tough, other rats are constantly in your way, and at the end of the day all you have to show for it is a stupid piece of cheese.

i'm not trying to say everyone that lives around here is an instant douchebag. there's definitely awesome people around here and it's not all doom and gloom. but for the most part, if you put our area in a douchebag contest with any other area in the world, i'm pretty sure odds would be steadily in our favor. we got douchebag written all over us.

so if you find yourself in other parts of the country (or the world for that matter), look around and see how wherever you may be stacks up against us in douchebaggery. and if you encounter a place that is full of hospitality, good manners, and all around swellness.... try and take a bit of that and bring it back home with you. fuck a souvenir from the gift shop, just bring back some of that awesomeness.

and for those of you who live around me and are starting to feel bad about who we are as a people and how others perceive us, don't worry... we're not the worst on the map. there's always philadelphia.