Day 25: About Your City

What are you grateful for about your city?

I am grateful for so much about Reno, so I'm going to do a list!

• I love the geography of Reno.  I love that we're high desert, and when we go for walks around the neighborhood, we walk through sagebrush and our dog chases lizards rather than squirrels.  But I also love that we're right at the edge of the mountains and can enjoy their beauty driving around town in almost every direction, not to mention adventure in them year round.  I love that the high desert climate means we get all four seasons, but none of them are severe.
• I love the size of Reno.  Midsized cities of about 200,000 - 500,000 are my favorite - there's plenty of interesting stuff to do and new restaurants to try and places to explore, but it's not so big that it feels crushing.  And when you live here long enough, you start to feel the six degrees of separation effect - you're not too far removed by personal connection from anyone.
• I love the character of the people here.  It's partly the wild wild west / independent / cowboy frame of mind, where people like to be left alone to live wild and free, but it's also heavily influenced by California, and has some of that healthy living / casual cool style.  (But if you're going to be a true Reno-ite, it is an absolute must to blame Californians for everything that's going wrong here, from the affordable housing crisis to heavier traffic to overcrowded schools to anyone being rude in any time or place.) 
• I love that leaders in the community are striving to reinvent this city, to make it more than a casino town living in the shadow of Vegas.  They are bringing in interesting tech and start ups, creating shopping and restaurant districts that aren't all about casinos, and just in general doing a bang up job of moving Reno forward.  
• Most of all, I love and am grateful for the people I'm close to here:  the Ching family, my friends, and my Dayspring church body.