Growing up in a big Italian family, I’m used to everyone acting the same way. But after going to college and making new friends, I realized that not everyone is loud and always hungry.
If you’re Italian and the only one in your friend group, you’ll understand.
1. You get told to ‘stop yelling’ all the time.
You have been told so many times to quiet down that it doesn’t even faze you anymore. Italians have two volumes: loud, and louder. Everyone else is simply quiet.
2. Your friends don’t understand your close relationship with your cousins.
“I can’t… I’m going to my cousins.” They’re basically your siblings. They always have been.
3. Your friends encourage you to go home...
Going home means you come back with food. A lot of food. When Nana hears you’re coming home, she makes all of your favorite foods and then makes triple so you can take it back with you to school.
4. ...which in turn gets you yelled at for taking up too much room in the freezer.
Nana doesn’t mess around with cooking for you. She sends it all back in containers for you to freeze so you never go hungry. But usually that means you take up 75% of the freezer.
5. You’re easily five inches shorter than the shortest friend.
You’ve accepted being used as an armrest, and moved on.
6. Your friends “hate you” because of your skin tone.
Sicilian blood = olive skin tone. In the summer, you tan so fast and easily that you’re tan from March to November, and even in the off months, your friends still envy your skin tone.
7. You cringe when you watch them make pasta.
If you’ve ever watched a college student make Ramen in the microwave you know what I mean.
8. You get yelled at for talking with your hands too much.
There’s a saying that Italians talk 20% of the time with their words and 80% of the time with their hands. You’ve almost hit your friends in the face at least 58 times while having a single conversation because your hands do the talking. Sorry. Tie our hands down and we can’t talk.
9. Your friends are constantly amazed at the amount of pasta you consume in a week.
People eat to live. Italians live to eat. Pasta makes the world go round.
10. Your friends don’t tell you secrets anymore because you can't keep them.
When you have a family as big as you do, "keeping secrets" is not in our vocabulary. Got a new boyfriend? A new job? Throwing a surprise party? Good luck expecting us to keep those secrets. My mom will know faster than you can say "don't tell your mom."
