Let's be real: you can never have too much pride when you're from Brooklyn. With its rich, diverse culture and innumerable things to do, why wouldn't you be proud? Here are some definite signs that you were born and raised in the County of Kings.
1. When your neighborhood is featured in the New York Times' list of hottest neighborhoods, you're like:
Media attention is a harbinger to gentrification. And you are not about that business.
2. When people ask you where you're from, you never say New York City. You say Brooklyn.
3. You refer to Manhattan as the city.
4. You're cool and down to earth, but you secretly think you're slightly better than everyone else because you're from Brooklyn.
5. The Atlantic Avenue stop will always be Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street to you.
You will never be forgotten.
6. But you were hella stoked when the Nets came along.
7. Coney Island can be either a well-deserved day trip or an overcrowded tourist-y hell.
Which is why you know the best times to hit the beach. (Hint: anytime that's not a hot Friday or Saturday afternoon.)
8. It's not a yard sale, it's a stoop sale.
9. You lost a lot of these while playing stoop ball.
Somehow, they'd turn up years later under a car or something.
10. You know what Italian ices are.
Not the crappy freeze pops from Costco, the kind that's fresh off the streets.
11. Christmas-time meant going to Dyker Heights and marveling at the ridiculously elaborate lights and decorations on all the houses.
#FestiveAF.
12. You consider an 8x10 patch of grass a lawn.
13. The first time you heard a siren or car alarm, you were like:
14. But now you're like:
You pretty much fall asleep to it.
15. The city skyline is pretty awesome, but the Kentile Floors sign is a true icon.
16. Luna Park will always be Astro Land in your heart.
*cough* Gentrification *cough*
17. Empire State of Mind is the New Yorker's Pledge of Allegiance, but you've got Biggie's Juicy.
It's been over two decades since the song was released, but it still resonates with you. R.I.P.
18. Your parents are still pissed that the Dodgers left.
19. There's no pizza like L&B Spumoni Gardens.
New York is known for its fantastic thin-crust pizza, and this place is no exception. Your parents would take you here all the time as a kid.
20. You're over 18 and you still don't have your driver's license.
Driving, schmiving. You know that driving in Brooklyn is a literal hell.
21. Like Flatbush Avenue, where driving etiquette goes to die.
With dollar vans swerving around every corner and pedestrians walking in the middle of the street, you're surprised you haven't hit anyone yet.
22. You pronounce this DEE-kalb, not deh-KALB.
23. When you have to leave Brooklyn, it always stays with you.
I can't!
24. Because you'll always know:
No matter how far you go, you'll always come back.
