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Someone else's poll!
Aug. 20th, 2009 09:03 amAn interesting poll on how far you've travelled from your birthplace.
I find it interesting but also a bit misleading. Because I think it may make folks look more well traveled than they are.
I for one, actually get to cheat a bit at this poll. I was born on the opposite side of the country from where I was raised. For the curious, I was actually born in San Diego (my father was in the Navy), but we moved to South Carolina when I was an infant and my father was discharged (honorably, thank you very much) when I about three years old. I lived in the same place and didn't go west of Mississippi, north of Kentucky, or south of Florida for the next eighteen years of my life.
So technically I can say I've been all across the country when, actually, I had no serviceable memory of anywhere but the American south for most of my life. Going to Nevada last year was technically not the first time I'd been there, but it was the first time I'd seen it. The last time I was there, I was a squirming infant in my mother's arms as my parents drove cross country (don't ask).
What about other military personnel's children. Some kids are born in frickin' Germany, but then stay in the U.S. all their lives. Does this make them well traveled?
Another question is: what counts as leaving the continent on which you were born?
If you live in, say, North America and you travel to the Carribean - does that count as leaving the continent if you step foot on an island which does not touch or border the North American landmass?
If you live in Europe and go to England, does that count as leaving the continent?
If you go far enough out to sea, does that count? I mean, if you left California and sailed until you got to the edge of, say, Japanese territorial waters, would that count? I mean, you would have sailed pretty frickin' far, but if you didn't set foot in Japan, have you left your continent?
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting poll. And it seems that, as of my last check, about 58% of respondents had left their continent.
I find it interesting but also a bit misleading. Because I think it may make folks look more well traveled than they are.
I for one, actually get to cheat a bit at this poll. I was born on the opposite side of the country from where I was raised. For the curious, I was actually born in San Diego (my father was in the Navy), but we moved to South Carolina when I was an infant and my father was discharged (honorably, thank you very much) when I about three years old. I lived in the same place and didn't go west of Mississippi, north of Kentucky, or south of Florida for the next eighteen years of my life.
So technically I can say I've been all across the country when, actually, I had no serviceable memory of anywhere but the American south for most of my life. Going to Nevada last year was technically not the first time I'd been there, but it was the first time I'd seen it. The last time I was there, I was a squirming infant in my mother's arms as my parents drove cross country (don't ask).
What about other military personnel's children. Some kids are born in frickin' Germany, but then stay in the U.S. all their lives. Does this make them well traveled?
Another question is: what counts as leaving the continent on which you were born?
If you live in, say, North America and you travel to the Carribean - does that count as leaving the continent if you step foot on an island which does not touch or border the North American landmass?
If you live in Europe and go to England, does that count as leaving the continent?
If you go far enough out to sea, does that count? I mean, if you left California and sailed until you got to the edge of, say, Japanese territorial waters, would that count? I mean, you would have sailed pretty frickin' far, but if you didn't set foot in Japan, have you left your continent?
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting poll. And it seems that, as of my last check, about 58% of respondents had left their continent.
