How Long Do You Need to Live in Wyoming to Say You’re From There?
As someone who has moved around to certain parts of the country a few times due to my career, I have never said that I've been 'from' any of those spots since I am not originally from there. That's not where I grew up. But a survey asked Americans 'how long do you need to live somewhere before you can say you're from there?' And the results may shock you. What would be the consensus for that question in the state of Wyoming?
I have currently lived in Wyoming for almost two years now. However, as I previously mentioned, I would never claim to be 'from here'. Although I was definitely shocked when I saw some results of the aforementioned survey.
The results, provided by YouGov gave options to answer the question, "How long do you have to live somewhere before you can say you're from there?" The answer options are listed as such:
- As soon as you move there.
- Less than one year.
- One to 10 years.
- More than 10 years.
- Only if you were born there.
- Not sure.
First off, can we all agree that the 'Not sure' option is the most ridiculous answer to any survey? Why even participate if that's your answer. For some reason, 14 percent answered with that option. Way to go, guys. Let's move on.
For the sake of the fixed location, let's say the state in question is Wyoming (it's not, but we'll say it is for now). It seems that 6 percent chose 'As soon as you move there' while 'Less than one year' earned 11 percent on the survey. That's 17 percent of people who think you can say you're from Wyoming after having lived there for less than a year.
What's even more is that 'One to 10 years' received 20 percent. If we combine that with the previous results, that's 37 percent that would say they're from Wyoming despite living there less than 10 years. That still doesn't seem like an appropriate answer, but the 'One to 10 years' leaves a lot of grey area based on what happens during that time frame. People could have met someone and married and now they'll continue to live there, or maybe their career has them there until further notice and it's going real well. There's a little leeway there.
'More than 10 years' seems reasonable depending on the situation. For that answer, 18 percent said that counts as saying you're from Wyoming (again, for the sake of the results). Personally, I was shocked that only 30 percent said 'Only if you were born there'. I would have thought that number seems low and would be closer to at least 50 percent.
So while this was a general study of Americans, not those living in Wyoming, I wonder how the results would turn out if we asked the Cowboy State what answer they would go with. What do you think, Wyomingites?
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