Facing Arizona: An optimistic future for Arizona

Editor’s note: Facing Arizona is a series that will appear on KTAR.com and social media  — follow KTAR News on Instagram and Facebook for updates — highlighting unique and everyday people across our state and give you a glimpse into their lives.

I’m in San Francisco for work but I have lived in Arizona for 32 years. I was born in Santa Barbra county; California and I am third-generation military. That is what brought my family to Arizona.

I believe that the military and the men and women, and their families, have played a large role in the growth of the Phoenix metropolitan area as well as the state. Now as an adult, I have the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States. I have been to Chicago, Portland [Maine], Orlando, Washington D.C., Seattle, etc., and these travels have really made me appreciate Phoenix, and the state of Arizona, as my home. That’s not to say I feel these cities, or the states in which they are located, are inferior to Phoenix. Each one is unique and special in its way for the populous that it supports. However, I have noticed in the last few years that Phoenix has embraced its past traditions and history and blended this with its progression into the latter half of this decade and moving into the next.

Education, politics, housing, social acceptance, art and culture, everything is beginning to coagulate in synchronicity. People are taking pride in Arizona once more and it’s an incredible event to witness. I am very optimistic for the future of Arizona, with the people and their passion and love for being Phoenicians, how could you not be? — Lauren Zbyszinski