From Pamela Ybanez:

As a recent college graduate I find myself to be one of those rare people who didn’t act as if fleeing from a crime scene soon after finishing school. Some may ask why and even more would gasp when I tell them where I had moved here from. "Hawaii," I explain and an astonished look always comes over their faces. Yes, right now I find Buffalo to offer more to me than so-called paradise.

Aside from the chicken wings and cheap beer (not to be devalued by any means), but there is much more to Buffalo than I thought I would even find. First and for most it is city of misfits. I claim that title proudly, and up until recently I thought I was a minority among the masses, but now, in this place I realize that it is the very heart and depth this community.

Take Allen St. for example, one of my favorites parts of this city. Its got life, history, and damn good bars. You walk down that street and you see a mixture of folk...straight, gay, old, young, poor, yuppies - you name it and it just walked past you.

No stronger have I felt this than having recently waited in the Washington, DC airport for my last leg of a two week vacation. There, in gate 19C, looking around at my new flying partners we made a pretty amusing bunch...kind of ugly really but in the most curious way of course. Some of us disheveled (myself included), others impatient to get on with their business travels, and what I would guess was a South Buffalo father traveling with his family - just to hint at the range. As I listened to him talking to his family he said some pretty damn ignorant things, but I continued to listen and in a way I felt not proud, but like I had come back to someplace that I didn’t want to leave.

As a half fit of twenty-nine years I used to try and hide my peculiarities, but now I make sure I exist in a place where its an acceptable form. Even the semi-sharp suits in downtown Buffalo feel like an eyesore/enigma for some reason...something just is not right being in those threads, in this city, in this time. For me this city is like the bottom of one’s sock drawer where all the stray socks seem to find their way and for the longest time you never can get rid of them. You don’t know why but if you did you just wouldn’t like yourself as much.

It’s all here and it’s all good, even with its dysfunctions. Of course Buffalo’s got problems, but those we hear about...ALL THE TIME. So now, I am putting my good two cents in and I say here’s to you for making it and doing it still, in Buffalo. And even as the steward jokingly announced, "Welcome to the Honolulu Airport" soon after landing I felt not a bit of sadness for having returned to my new hometown.