12 Things About The Place I Live That Outsiders Just Don’t Understand
2-The place where I live has a particular regional delicacy or way of preparing a standard dish that other people don’t do. Because I live here, I’ve gotten used to it and I think it’s better than the way it’s done everywhere else.
3-We have a unique way of pronouncing a couple of common words that nobody else does. We take this as a mark of pride. Everyone else just calls it an accent, and thinks we’re weird when we correct them or get upset about it. Also, we make t-shirts highlighting the weird way we pronounce it, and sell them to tourists and short-timers.
4-We are very proud of one of our strange local festivals/customs, and will constantly be shocked and surprised when we discover that people who don’t live here have no idea what we’re talking about when we mention them. The fact that the local festival/custom generally involves spending lots of money at a few specialty stores that cater to it and wearing a weird hat has not yet breached our consciousness.
5-Our pizza is different from and better than your pizza. Just accept this.
6-There is something special and unique about the place where I live that only natives understand, never mind the fact that a significant portion of the people who live where I live are not actually from here. In fact, a huge chunk of the population is relative newcomers, who quickly embrace our weird local customs, foods, and pronunciation quirks in an effort to convince themselves that they are in fact locals.
7-We get very offended by people stereotyping people from around here. So offended that we periodically reinforce those regional stereotypes by posting lists of weird regional behaviors to social media sites.
8-There are no sports fans like our local sports fans. We like to paint ourselves team colors, tailgate in parking lots before games, and get wildly excited when our teams win. Occasionally, we set couches on fire.
9-We firmly believe that there is something wrong with anyone who hasn’t tried one of our local microbrewed beers, never mind that it doesn’t get distribution more than fifteen miles from the brewery. We can wax endlessly rhapsodic about that beer despite the fact that we do not ourselves drink it, largely because it’s slightly more expensive than the stuff we started drinking in college.
10-Something about Point #6. I don’t remember what Point #6 was, but at this point the list is getting a little overstretched, so it’s time to reference something that’s already been said in hopes of padding things out a little longer.
11-We have a couple of unique words for common items that don’t get used outside of a 50 mile radius of where I’m standing. We like to make fun of people who don’t understand what we’re talking about when we use them when we’re here, and to get annoyed at people who don’t understand when we’re talking about when we use them somewhere else.
12-People from my area steadfastly believe that lists like this will educate people about our area, and refuse to believe that the only people reading it are locals looking for affirmation.
