Growing up in Bergen County, New Jersey is truly a blessing. You were provided with a tight-knit group of friends, good education, and safe neighborhoods. Sure, people already hate you for being from New Jersey to begin with, and they hate you even more for being from Bergen County, but you can't deny your love. The 201 is forever in your heart. We are stereotyped as "basic white girls" and "jocks," but that is hardly the case. And even if it is, you will forever sing pride for your county. Here are 21 signs you were born and raised in Bergen County.
1. Even though New York is close to your hometown, you will never, EVER get gas there.
Our gas is cheaper and we don’t have to get out of the car to get it. You can make fun of us all you want, but we’ll be warmly getting gas when you’re freezing your hands off doing it by yourself in the winter.
2. Anything that isn’t the city and isn’t the suburbs is farm country.
Does anything really exist in Jersey besides the suburbs?
3. The Palisades mall is your savior when you need to go shopping on a Sunday and every mall in-county is closed.
Even if it does mean paying tax on clothes. Blue Laws, we hate you.
4. You pretty much know every town in the county and their distance from your hometown.
And their exit on the parkway. Paramus and Ridgewood and Westwood, oh my.
5. No diner will ever beat YOUR diner.
Especially if your diner is The Ridge Diner.
6. You’re also not quite sure why there aren’t five diners within a 20-mile radius whenever you leave the state.
Do other states not understand the beauty of a diner? You can literally get whatever you want, whenever you want.
7. No other place does Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese bagels quite right.
Shut up, Long Island. Our bagels are better.
8. You can recognize everyone in your graduating class and probably everyone in the classes four years younger and older than you.
Is there really anyone you don’t know? Chances are you’ve heard just about everyone’s name and you know every little gossip there is to know about them.
9. People who don’t live in Bergen County hate you.
You’re rich, right? LOL, no, wrong.
10. The school spirit is REAL.
Most of your Friday and Saturday nights were probably spent at football games.
11. We are overly protective of our friend group and our friends.
We will defend our friends until we die. Will it start a fight? Bring it on.
12. There’s a 99 percent chance that someone you know knows someone who knows someone from The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Think about it. You know it’s true.
13. Not ending a night of drinking at the diner doesn’t make sense.
Did you even really drink at all if your night doesn’t end with disco fries?
14. You can’t name any towns in Central/Southern Jersey besides Seaside Heights and Wildwood.
Is there even anything there besides beaches and Wawas?? LMK.
15. You “go down the shore.”
What is “going to the beach?”
16. All of your guy friends wear Vineyard Vines.
And you consider this to be a positive thing.
17. You only have one parkway.
It is THE parkway. Do other parkways even exist?
18. You’re still friends with most of your high school friends.
This makes coming home for breaks and summers all the more exciting. You have lifelong friends in Bergen County and you don’t understand people who don’t love returning to their high school friends. The stories and the laughter make summer nights some of the sweetest.
19. You’ve been to Ramapo Reservation at least once.
Even if it was just for the Insta.
20. You don’t offer to drive to Garden State Plaza on a Saturday.
It’s like the Hunger Games out there trying to snag a parking spot.
21. Whenever you’re away from home and you meet someone who gives you their number and it starts with “201” you can’t even control your excitement.
What town?!
We all love college, but we can't deny the excitement that we feel upon returning home to the best county. It'll always be in our hearts.
