Just because I’m from Colorado doesn’t mean I smoke weed

Growing up in Colorado, I got incredibly sick of learning about Native Americans and the Mountain Men and the Pioneers. In school we heard over and over about the Wild West, the fur trappers, and the excitement of making wilderness in to home.

But now it seems that the history of Colorado, along with the reputations that those years built up, has boiled down to one thing:

“So do you get high, like, all the time?”

I would take an entire semester course about beaver trading if it meant that people would stop asking me that question.

Just to put things in perspective, here’s a few activities that are far more worthy of stereotyping:

We like sports

We like hiking (especially to/near waterfalls)

We really like waterfalls

We don’t only eat Cheetos and Twinkies from the gas station

We REALLY like using our flag as an accessory

I mean doesn’t it make every picture pop?

We ski a lot too

We do get high sometimes, though…like when I climbed this 14,439 foot mountain

But more than anything, Coloradans like to brag about Colorado (seriously, count the number of flags around my desk)

So yes, I will say that in Colorado you’ll see the occasional dispensary. You’ll learn to just give yourself some space from that guy driving 20 in a 50. You learn young that the smell of skunk isn’t always a skunk. But I also learned how important the mountains, the sunshine, and the history is to me.

So stop asking me if I smoke all the time, and start asking yourself why that’s the only thing you know about such a great state.