Northern Virginia also known as NoVa, is a place that you love just enough, but hate at the same time. It's a place where you've seen everything and anything multiple times due to growing up there. A place where people think going the speed limit is 10 over the actual speed limit, and if you fully break at the stop sign, people WILL honk at you. A place where going to Mcdonald's at 2 a.m. is where you see everyone and anyone you just saw earlier that day at school.
Here's signs you know you've grow up in NoVa:
The "slang" we say that other people outside of NoVa don't understand.
"I'm hip," "true," "bet," "sus," "sice." I know this has happened to all of us NoVa people. We say a word or a saying and get weird looks like "what does that even mean?" Yes I know, we've all been there.
We know the pain of traffic and our tempers when it comes to road rage.
We plan our day around rush hour between route 50, 66, 95, 395, and 495. Constantly sitting in traffic is a part of our daily routine, we're bumper to bumper, occasionally flipping someone off because we never think it's our fault. (You know that's true).
Constantly getting asked what and where exactly NoVa is.
We all have answered these questions at least a million times: "What's NoVa?" "Where's NoVa?" "Why is it called that?" So for anyone that's wondering, I'm going to take one for the team and tell you now. NoVa is within Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Fredericksburg, Stafford and Arlington counties. NoVa is a place where you can drive 20 minutes to see the White House or drive 20 minutes into the middle of no where. It's a place you only understand if you grew up there; and that's the best part about it.
The stereotypes from people that think they know what NoVa is.
To all the people that have never been to NoVa or didn't grow up there, but think you have a clue what's it all about, this one's for you. "So you're rich?" "You're stuck up then?" "Your mom and dad give you all your money?" "You're a spoiled brat." "You must live in a mansion and drive a BMW?" NO! That is not the case at all.
Yes, just like every place in this world there are people like that, especially in NoVa, but that is always not the case. These are the people that frustrate me the most. Just because you're from a certain place doesn't mean everyone fits into the stereotypes that go with it. So next time you meet someone from NoVa and your reaction is "So you're a NoVa girl, huh?" think before you speak.
Your Instagram time line is full of pictures of people either at Great Falls, Dreamy Puppy, DC, or Georgetown.
We get it...we've all been to these places a million times or more, but we all seem to continue to go back and take "artsy" pictures every we go.
When a inch of snow or a rain shower comes a twitter popular trend comes with it.
Somehow all of us tweeting things such as "#CLOSELCPS" and "#CLOSEFCPS" works. We all tweet these things off our phones and you can guess in about an hour we'll get a call saying our county is closed. How many snow days did my county have last year? I would have to say close to 3 weeks.
Jiffy Lube live concerts explain about every other weekend of your summer.
Country concert after country concert...you go with your best friends and end up turning around and seeing your parents and their friends having a better time. (Hey mom & dad).
You're not subjected to just one race, because NoVa is filled with a little bit of everyone.
I love being from somewhere where I've had the opportunity to experience people from different backgrounds. It makes life easier in the long run, because you get to understand and appreciate knowing the different types of people there are in this world.
Always complaining about being bored even though there's a ton of things to do around, but you end up Netflix and chilling by yourself.
"Continue watching?" shaking your head because obviously you're not done after watching all 11 seasons of "Grey's Anatomy" on Netflix. We've all been there...don't feel bad.
Even though we say about once a day "I hate NoVa," we can't imagine growing up/living anywhere else.
We all lowkey love NoVa, don't deny it.
