It may seem like you’re pretty used to hearing these things below but trust me, there’s so many signs that you grew up in a big city; if you did. It could be Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, or Shanghai, as long as you know your city was big. Now here’s 22 of the reasons you know you were born and/or raised/grew up in a big city.
1. Names of restaurants are hard to remember
“Remember when we ate at the place that had really good steak? Yeah! The place right next to Barnes and Noble!” That’s one way you would try to start off remember the last really good restaurant you ate at. Restaurants are also come and go, which means, there are so many restaurants that you sometimes eat there once and forget about it.
2. “Which one?”
You might say, “Which one?” if your friend asked you if you wanted to go to a restaurant or mall; not because you like saying it but because there’s so many options to choose from around you.
3. You’ll never or rarely see the same person
You’ll rarely or never even see the same person again in your life when you’re in public. Let’s say you went to a coffee shop every morning. It would be almost impossible to see the same customers at random every day you’re there.
4. Diversity
There’s so much diversity where you’re from. Whether you’re American, Asian, African American, or Mexican, you’re bound to see every race when you go to Walmart, Target, or Costco. There’s really no doubt you’ll only see one race.
5. The airports are huge
It’s obviously a given but the airports are huge in the big cities. Not only will you wait a few hours to get into the airport terminal but it’ll take you a few hours to stand in line and wait to get your luggage checked in.
6. Traffic sucks
Oh boy does traffic suck. It may take you an hour to two hours just to get from home to work during rush hour.
7. So many cars
You’re used to every kind of car. When a new car comes out, before you even see a commercial for it, you see someone driving it already. You’ve seen almost every kind of car out there and you know almost every one by name.
8. Uber and Lyft
Big cities are known for Uber and Lyft drivers. In some cities like Los Angeles, you will see 20% of the cars on the road with a Uber or Lyft sticker on their car.
9. Professional
In big cities, you’ll get more of the professional type of people rather than the friendly “We’re all from around here, I kind of know you”, type of people. In small towns, people are more friendly because it’s a small community. It’s not the same with big towns.
10. Public transportation
There’s buses, trains, and taxis everywhere you go. For the most part, you don’t even need a car but most people still choose to have one.
11. So MANY things to do
Doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, there are so many things to do during the day or at night. Most events happen on Friday or the weekend, just in case you’re wondering.
12. FOOD
You’ve tried every kind of food there is to try… well almost. From Chinese food, to Indian food, to American food, to Mexican food, you’ve had it all. You’ve even had the Indonesian food next door.
13. So many “liquor” stores
When I was a kid, we used to call them liquor stores. They don’t only sell liquor but they sell all sorts of snacks, chips, candy, drinks, and sodas. It’s kind of like a gas station mart.
14. Animals are out of the norm
You’ve almost never touched a goat or a chicken before in your life. You’ve grown up being around cars, people, and more people. The last living thing you’ve touched is a llama.
15. Out of stock
When something is a hit and it goes on sale in stores, it usually means it’s out of stock. Some people even line up outside before the store opens to buy what that thing.
16. Proud
You’re proud of being from a big city. You love to rep the name of where you from to other people from smaller cities or towns. Not only does telling them where you’re from help but telling them that there’s so much to do and why it’s the best place on earth to be.
17. No stars
It’s really hard to see the stars at times mainly because of the population. When you do see the stars, you don’t see all of them. It’s a whole another story when you’re in the country in the middle of nowhere! (It’s quite beautiful and amazing actually)
18. Long drives
It takes you 1 hour to drive 10 miles sometimes. This gets even worse when traffic is bad or when it’s rush hour. A lot of people wake up early or leave work late just so they won’t be stuck in traffic. For me, it’s not worth getting up that early or leaving late.
19. Residential street
You have used Waze or Google Maps before and it has taken you through residential areas and streets to help you avoid traffic… but even then traffic is still bad in residential areas because a lot of people are doing the same thing as you!
20. Parks and people
There’s always people at parks, no matter what time of day it is! Whether it’s early in the morning or midnight, the tennis court you really want is always taken.
21. Stores are open!
Late night munchies happen to a lot of people. We can guarantee that you’ve been out with your friends late at night just to get some food and hang out. Good thing some restaurants are open that late because you’re not the only one with munchies!
22. Theme parks
You live in LA. You have Disneyland, Six Flags, and many other theme parks. They’re only a few miles away from you but you don’t bother to even go because it’s whatever; also mostly because it’s so close that you can go whenever.
