Florida Living: My Home State Aversions

So, remember how I told ya’ll about how much I love Florida? Well, this time I plan on discussing with you the ten reasons as to why I HATE Florida and why I personally think it’s a terrible idea to move here, transfer here, or even think about visiting here for vacations.

I must admit, it was very hard to come up with ten reasons as to why I love living here. I’ve never been a fan. In fact, there’s very few things I like about about it. One of them being that my family lives here and if I could take them with me, I’d move up north the first chance I got.

The older I get the harder it is for me to find the good in Florida. I have to seriously try and find the positives within where I live. The top ten things I wrote within my previous blog was pathetically all I could come up with and I feel like even that was pushing it.

Ten Things I Hate About Living In Florida

1. HEAT. Our heat index reaches over 100 degrees almost everyday during our summers. If you can fry eggs on the concrete and bake cookies on your car’s dashboard then you know it’s way too hot to be outside. I’m a jogger and unless I run at 6 in the morning, I am unable to run at all or if I do, it’s not far. It’s too hot and can be incredibly hard to breathe at times. Our summers are much longer than other states and because I’m so fair skinned, I cannot be out in the sun for too long or else I get dizzy due to the scorching heat. We have to run the A/C year round for crying out loud!
2. POPULATION. Our population has reached an unbelievable number of over 20 million and it definitely shows. Our roads are getting more and more congested everyday, there’s apartment complexes and housing development popping up all over the place and because of the massive amounts of people moving here, traffic is AWFUL. If you work a 9-5 job and you don’t hit the road before 6 AM, you can just assume you’ll be sitting in traffic forever. If there’s an accident, you might as well call in sick because you’ll more than likely be sitting in traffic for hours. This is assuming your job is in Orlando and my bet is that if you’ve moved to Florida for work, it’s because you’ve found yourself a hospitality job right in the heart of tourist country itself. 
3. BUGS. Not only do we have swarms of mosquitoes that greet you every night, but we have the lovely cicadas. For those of you who don’t know what they are, they’re a type of bug you can’t normally see, but they make a very, very loud noise. My husband and I got so fed up with the amount of bugs that greet us when we step outside, that we decided to get a bug zapper. Let me tell you, if we leave it running every night, by the time morning comes we have to clean the massive amount of bugs stuck to it. It’s gross. 
4. ALLIGATORS, SNAKES AND PANTHERS, OH MY. Okay, I’ll admit I’ve never seen a wild Florida panther, there again I’ve never actually gone hunting for them for obvious reasons. Oh, a little word of advice, don’t go swimming in lakes during the summer months nor at night. Do you know why? Ever heard of brain eating amoebas? Well, they thrive in warm water such as lakes and rivers. It’s sad, but many people die each year from them as the outcome is almost always fatal. If you’re smart, you won’t go in the lakes at all as there are alligators and deadly snakes constantly lurking about in the water. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ll open up the front door and there’s a snake “hiding” in our bushes and you always have to be careful as we have poisonous ones too.
5. SHARKS. There’s a reason I also don’t swim in the ocean. Florida is prominently known for their attacks and deaths due to sharks which by the way, can also be found swimming in shallower water than you might think (knee high).  I love the beach just as much as the next girl, but I refuse to get in the water.
6. TOURISTS. Let me tell you something about tourists as you could consider them a blessing and a curse for the population of Florida. If you’re on any highway heading towards the theme parks, you need to keep your eyes open and keep yourself on full alert as the tourists have a one track mind and are terrible, terrible, terrible drivers. No offense. Perhaps it’s because this is a big city and they’re not used to people driving fast and aggressively. Or maybe it’s because they can see the Disney signs everywhere and just can’t focus on anything else because the overwhelming excitement is far too consuming. Even though Orlando would be nothing without our theme parks, I sometimes wish I didn’t live in such a heavily populated tourist trap. 
7. WHAT SEASONS? I have never seen snow besides little flurries and even that was due to being in another state. It rarely gets cold and if it does, it’ll only last for about two weeks. I swear, people down here get excited when they have to cover their bushes with blankets so they don’t freeze. I mean it’s the topic of conversation for days. Let’s just say this, Florida has three seasons: Hot, mostly hot, kinda hot, and those two weeks where it “freezes.” I have never seen leaves change colors and I have never experienced the peacefulness of waking up to a blanket of snow. People from up north like to remind me that I would get tired of the snow real fast. While that might be true, you don’t want to experience the Florida heat because I’ll be willing to bet that it’s just as bad, if not worse. 
8. NO MOUNTAINS. I think the reason why I love Tennessee so much is due to their never ending shortage of mountains. The air is different here compared to up north. When Kevin and I visited Tennessee for our honeymoon it was like taking one big breath of fresh air. Living in Florida is like taking a big breath of humid, hot air. Maybe it’s because I’m not used to seeing mountains or being able to take a hike in a non-swampy area, but for some reason it’s my favorite view. Florida might have a few mild hills, but mountains? No way. 
9. ALLERGIES. Because of our long summers and warmer winters, it allows for flowers to bloom longer therefore allowing them to produce pollen longer than most states. I have lots of allergies and due to our last “winter” we had, it wasn’t cold enough to kill the trees, flowers and plants putting Florida in the top rank for worst place to be if you have allergies. Picture a constant stuffy nose and watery, itchy eyes. Such a delight.
10. RAIN. Okay, okay I know I mentioned that I LOVE rain and there’s no denying that I do, but sometimes it can be a real pain. It makes traffic worse, you constantly have to carry an umbrella around and forget about doing your hair in the summer time because a mixture of humidity and rain will give you the worst hair imaginable.

Naturally these are my own opinions, but I am still amazed that people continue to move down here. The heat makes people irritable and gives off this aggressive sense of road rage which trust me, you’ll want to avoid. Maybe it’s just me, but I just don’t think I’m in love with Florida like the rest of the world. Yeah, we have beaches which is great, but it’s not enough to keep me here especially when there’s beaches in a lot of states. I’m basically a Florida girl craving a state with seasons, white Christmas’s and mountainous views. Is that too much to ask?

What about you? Do you like Florida?