Keep Portland Weird
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9/14/2012
I lived in Everett, Washington for two years and would visit a friend in Portland any chance I had. At first Portland seemed really romantic. Everything was beautiful; the weather, the shops, the food and especially the people. We ate healthy food, biked or walked anywhere that we went, and listened to live music until it was time to sleep. Everyone had dreadlocks and wore secondhand clothes. We went to Voodoo Donuts and Saturday Market. We hung out at The Deli (which isn’t there anymore, I don’t think) and visited the Rose Garden. It was unique and definitely captured my attention. Folks were very kind and used words like "lovely" and "spiritual" and bragged about how open minded their city was. They would say things like "Portland is a place for anyone. We accept anyone. We love anyone." As if discrimination of any sort was out of the question.
That made it all the more surprising when they found out that I was a Christian that grew up in Texas. I was the exact same person they had been so sweet to before, and now they were insulting me. Now I was "hateful" and "narrow minded" and they couldn't understand how I could thrive in a state that "suffocated my soul." I am not racist. I do not hate anyone that is different than me. I feel like I am called to love everyone, and so I try to do that. They didn’t believe me. Because I wore the title “Christian” I missed out on being their friends. From that point things were different. They tried to convert me to Buddhism, they would make negative comments about my being on Facebook or my phone, and scolded me for “doing that to my body” when I ate a powdered donut. They even tried to steal my clothes and called me materialistic when I said something about it.
Isn’t Portland’s motto “Keep Portland Weird”? Well they do that by making anyone who isn’t their “kind” feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. I suppose that since I was what the world deemed "normal" I didn't fit in there.
As long as you meet the right people, Portland is absolutely wonderful. I can't believe how beautiful and peaceful it is in the summer. It is definitely a place to visit, and maybe move, depending on the neighborhood. I can’t really tell you that you’d have a terrible experience; I didn’t. I still have incredibly fond memories of my visits there. I do love Portland, however, due to the overwhelming amount of negative judgment I received, I won’t be returning.
Cassandra | Irving, TX