8 Signs You’ve Officially Become A New Yorker

By Casey Galasso

I love New York, but this city isn’t for everybody. There’s a reason this place is home to so many rats and roaches — only the strong survive. People come from the world over to try to make it here. Some are successful; others, not so much. How do you know if you’ve “made it” as a New Yorker? Well, take that bagel out of your mouth and find out.

1. “Get y’all black tees on, All black everything; black cards, black cars, all black everything.” Jay-Z, a native New Yorker, speaks the truth. One day, you’ll wake up and realize you haven’t worn a color other than black since you moved here. You don’t hate it.

2. You’ve gotten seriously injured because of mass transit. When sprinting for a train, I tripped over a crack in the ground, which resulted in two bloody knees and a mutilated iPhone. I love New York. Really, I do).

3. You know how to properly pronounce Houston Street.

4. You have a better relationship with your Seamless delivery guy than you do with your family and closest friends. (Girl’s gotta eat, right?)

5. “Can I have your attention please?” have become the most dreaded words in the English language.

6. Paying $10.00 for half a sandwich is cheap, but you refuse to pay more than $.99 for pizza. Because New York.

7. Coffee has become an integral part of your genetic makeup. I rarely, if ever, drank coffee before I was in the city every day. Now the first thought I have every morning, even before “I need to go to the bathroom,” is “ME WANT COFFEE.” I’m pretty sure it’s keeping me alive.

8. You swipe your MetroCard on the first try. (You go, Glenn Coco).