Southern California is one of the most populated, beloved regions in the country, home to sunny weather, beautiful beaches, and beautiful people. Freshman criminology major Mikaela Davenport is constantly asked what made her choose to leave Irvine, Ca., a town only minutes away from Laguna Beach and an hour south of Los Angeles. She now calls UMD home and is enjoying four seasons, Maryland pride, and the opportunities the east coast has to offer.
Considering the renowned excellence of California schools, like UCLA, UC Berkeley, or Stanford, Mikaela is often asked why she chose University of Maryland. In eighth grade, she competed in a program called National History Day on campus. When applying for colleges years later, she remembered UMD and chose to apply.
“I read more about the university and it began to feel more and more like the place I wanted to spend the next four years of my life,” said Mikaela.
Since moving to the east coast, Mikaela has explored Washington D.C. (her favorite city), New York City, all new territory to the Californian native. Back home, Irvine maintains a relatively stable temperature throughout the year – not that this is a bad thing, considering that temperature is about 75 degrees and sunny. Growing up, Mikaela didn’t experience the joy of waking up and finding out schools are canceled because of snow. Though we had a relatively snowless winter, the varying seasons are Mikaela’s favorite part of Maryland.
One thing Maryland lacks and Mikaela misses are the multiple beaches scattered across the Californian coast, all of which are only a short drive away from Mikaela’s home town. Ocean City, Md. doesn’t exactly compare on the beach scale to Laguna or Venice beach.
“The thing I miss most about California, as stereotypically Californian as it sounds, is the beach…being this far away has been a difficult adjustment,” explain Mikaela.
With her first year of college coming to a close, Mikaela is excited to see what these years as a Terp have in store. She is a criminology major interested in behavior analysis, hoping to uncover what makes one person more likely to commit a crime over another. Hopefully when she returns she can introduce to her fellow Californians the beauty of Old Bay and a decent crab cake.