1. The DMV is DC, Maryland, Virginia
It's not the department of motor vehicles, it's the place you call home!
2. Along with that you are a strong believer that you're from DC, not Baltimore
No, just no. DC all the way.
3. You are also adamant you are not from the South
Do I really need to go into this?
4. Public transportation can be a huge blessing or hell
When you don't want to deal with DC parking (or DC drivers) the public transportation aspect can be great and you can get almost everywhere in DC. There are stops for busses most places and several metro stops, but a lot of the time you want to pull your hair out from delays due to construction, maintenance or whatever other malfunction of the week (or day) is going on.
5. You've used your high school I.D. for the rideon after you graduated from high school at least once
Don't lie. You've done it. It's free.
6. You use the words Wootton and wonton interchangeably
It has been said the Asian population at that school is pretty high and...okay, come on! The people that go there refer to it as wonton too!
7. 10% for hw and 50% on everything else
If you fail you must be trying really hard considering you get 10% for your homework and every test and assignment you try on you get at least 50%, not to mention there are no POP quizzes...or there shouldn't be...that's a rule. So you have that test in AP Calc and Bio? Don't worry, bombing one won't completely kill you. Also C, C, E is still a C.
8. The W schools
Wootton, Winston Churchill, Walter Johnson, and Whitman. Their parking lots are the ones with the BMWs and Mercedes, you know...where the students cars are better than the teachers
9. You grew up hanging out in the Kentlands, the Rio, and RTC
The major hang out places that had the movie theaters, food places, Starbucks shops and other places that kept you occupied.
10. You could always tell who the out of towners were in DC
Going on field trips to DC were nothing special, but when you went you could tell who was from out of town, they were usually super overdressed with the big huge name tags on their chests.
11. Poolesville and Damascus sometimes felt like far off distant lands
Yeah, Damascus had a good football team, poolesville had a magnet program but they both were towns of their own (worlds of their own)
12. The bag tax
5 cents for plastic bags, I guess that made us a tad more environmentally aware?
13. Rush hour traffic on 270
Hell on earth.
14. Montgomery Mall was your shopping spot
15. You're used to having everything at your fingertips
Multiple movie places check? Chipotles and Paneras at every corner? Check. Multiple fancy dining places? Check. A bunch of malls and shops? Check again! A zoo? Free museums? DC is right around the corner. If you think it we probably got it.
16. Everyone goes to a university or MCC
From the moment you enter the school system, higher education is pushed down your throat. From writing your college essay with you in class to having meetings with you about the after high school process, to shoving AP and honors classes down your throat, to a specialist on scholarships (career advising center) Montgomery County schools did it all.
17. Competition, Montgomery County is nothing if not competitive
Sport rivalries (the Kings of Germantown between northwest and Seneca, Damascus vs QO), to who has the best drama department, to who has the best AP scores/SAT scores, everything in Montgomery country is a competition and it has made you super competitive as well.
18. Your parents believed whole heartedly in extracurriculars
As soon as possible your parents had you signed up for some sport or dance class or girl/Boy Scouts. They were putting you in music classes or clubs after school, being involved was a way of life, even when you got older with all your AP classes. I guess that's made us pretty good multitaskers.
19. You've encountered QOs red army
You all know what I'm talking about, to put it in perspective when I typed in Quince Orchard in google to get this picture, red army quickly came up on the search bar. Even though you glared and booed them, you had to admire that spirit and knew you'd be doing the same thing if you went there
20. You always know someone who knows someone
All those extracurricular activities has introduced you to quite a few people hence the someone knows someone, but thank god we're big enough where you never know everyone
21. Everything is more expensive there than anywhere else
We have so much stuff because we pay for it
22. We don't have accents.
We do not!
23. You recieved phone calls home for every absence
Even your parents got tired of those calls
24. Edline
Awesome to know where you stood in your classes, horrible that your parents had an account too
25.You grew up with a mix of suburbia and city life
With DC so close? How could you not?
26. Diversity
You are surrounded by people who are different than you all the time. People of different social backgrounds, of different races, sexualities, political parties and, on a lighter note, different sport fan affiliations. It makes you open to see different perspectives and you get to be friends with so many different kinds of perople (only to see you guys are more the same than different).
27. The amount of languages around you is both frustrating and cool
While, it might annoy you when your friend starts speaking Chinese and you can't understand her...It's fun when she teaches you the cuss words.
28. You learn to be pretty accepting
People don't bother you, you don't bother them. You see people as people not the stereotypes that were given to them when you've grown around diversity your whole life (but that doesn't stop from the occasional joke based on race..)
29. By the time college rolled around you were desperate to escape
You can lose your mind with all the pressure and competition
30. When you left you realized how lucky you were to have grown up there
Despite all the competition and constant pressure to be better than the next person. Despite all the tedious work we got in school and the times we felt suffocated by our parents and teachers. Despite the moments you wanted to pull your hair out. When you're older and go somewhere else you realize how lucky you were for all the opportunities. How all those APs they made you take made your first couple years of college easier (no English 103 for me!). How the competition made you ready for how competitive the real world is and it gave you a great sense of passion and drive. And how the diversity has made you an advocate for others or at least has made you a person who couldn't imagine being in a place where you weren't learning or constantly surrounded by people different than you
