Shannon Kane

Quote

Returning from your own Funeral

Have you recently had one of those depressing Seattle days? Every Seattleite certainly has one of those days every now and then! In those days, you feel nothing less than a miserable, disconnected, and insignificant creature who worth nothing. You feel like all of your previous decisions have been a mistake and that's why you are where you are. These thoughts get more and more complicated and at the end you start wearing out your self-esteem. On those days, you're so sad that it feels like you just returned from your own funeral.

The gloomy Seattle weather has something to do with it, so do Seattleites. One of my friends said it best "Seattle is like that popular girl in high school. The one who gets your vote for homecoming queen because she always smiles and says hello. But she doesn't know your name and doesn't care to. She doesn't want to be your friend. She's just being nice."

In Seattle we do a lot of things alone and without a sense of community. More than three-quarters of people participate in an individual sport but only 13 percent play on a team. We ride bikes alone; go on walks alone; troll bookstores alone, then go home and read alone having a glass of wine or a cup of tea. Coordinating a dinner with a friend seems like a shoddy effort because traveling from the Eastside to Westside (~5-7 miles) is, in the eyes of many, a huge undertaking.

Seattle has some elements of a boring place during this time of the year. But the bigger problem is its people - most of whom being transplants from other places who decided to attend lovers and other strangers' funerals.