People leaving Florida.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

38. I likewise cannot abide heat.

Worse yet, heat and humidity.

I very much get that you would love it there, having been born and raised there. It would be Not Very Nice if you hated it but for some reason could not leave.

As someone who has lived in various states: New York, Arizona twice, Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado, Kansas, and now New Mexico, I've been quite puzzled that a lot of people who live in a cold-weather state have an almost knee-jerk response to retirement by moving to a southern or southwestern state. To me, there is a lot more to quality of life than the weather. The politics. The people. Are there cultural things there? Places to visit?

Again, having spent your whole life in Florida is a very, very different life from mine. I was born in northern NYS, and had I never left -- when I was 14 my mom left my abusive, alcoholic father, and moved us five kids to Tucson, AZ -- I might very well still be there and very happy. That move to a very different part of the country, from a small town in rural northern NY to a large, relatively sophisticated city, changed my life completely.

Every time I'm about to post something along the lines of "That is a terrible state! Why would anyone live there???" someone who does live there and loves it makes a post about that. Which reminds me that we live in a wonderful country, with 50 wonderful states. So what if you couldn't pay me to live in some of them? You probably could not be paid enough to live in any of my favorites.