It's a Small World

I am repeatedly struck by the number of people who move here to Johnson County, KS, from the area in which I spent most of my life: North San Diego county. My stats professor last semester grew up in Escondido, the same city I lived in. He went to Palomar junior college, which is the college I started out at, too. Just tonight, I opened my microbiology lab text -- the author is a professor at Palomar. But even stranger to me, in the acknowledgments he thanks Dorcas Lounsbery, a long-time friend of the family. (To my CA friends and family -- do you know Ron Palcic or Gary Alderson? Would be so weird if you did.)

These are not the only examples. I work with a woman who lived in Escondido for several years. The administrative assistant at our synagogue went to the same high school I went to, and she graduated just two years ahead of me. Aaron works with a woman who graduated the same year Aaron did from the same high school. While they did not know each other then, they know a lot of the same people.

I've seen cars with license plate frames from car dealerships in Torrey Pines and San Marcos. I seem to encounter people on a regular basis who are from North San Diego County. How do so many people from one place end up here? Yes, the areas are similar -- lots of housing developments, community pools, gyms, and chain restaurants -- but there are hundreds -- probably thousands -- of similar places in the US. Yes, Kansas City is a great place to raise a family, but so are a lot of other places. Housing prices are great compared to San Diego, but that's true of many other places, too.

So what is it that brings so many from there to here? It boggles me. I think about it far too much. It's like there's some kind of connection, maybe some worm-holish-type anomaly, that brings people from North San Diego county to JoCo, KS.

What is it?!?!