We (Carly and I) have lived in Virginia our whole lives, but we know that we can't really say that because we have lived in Northern Virginia (NOVA) our whole lives. Before you ask, yes, there is a difference.

1. If you stay on the same road long enough, the name will change.

And not just once. The road I live off of starts as (where I get on it) Ox Road. Going north it suddenly is Chain Bridge Road, Maple Ave W, Maple Ave E, Dolley Madison Boulevard, until it finally ends, and is once again Chain Bridge Road. Going south it turns into Gordon Boulevard before coming to a point where you have to turn right or left. Collectively, it's 1-23.

2. A mixing bowl is something through which you drive.

3. The ever constant road construction.

It never seems to stop or progress for that matter so traffic is always a thing.

4. A 10 minute drive takes 30 minutes.

Traffic is so constant and you're so used to it that you always adjust your travel time for it.

5. You have at least one friend who's parents can't talk about what they do for a living.

6. The struggle of choosing between IB, AP, honors, or regular classes.

If you weren't stressed out then you weren't really a NOVA student.

7. You ignore the question of what town you're from and immediately default to "northern Virginia."

Let's be real with each other: the specific towns in northern Virginia are only unique to those from northern Virginia.

8. NOVA is also the name of the community college.

9. There is nothing but everything to do at the same time.

There are many movie theaters, almost always high school events, a couple bowling alleys, and several malls. Not to mention D.C. is just a metro ride away. Yet we always find ourselves lacking something to do because it's all expensive.

10. Your graduating class was 500+ students.

11. Running at 4 in the morning is totally acceptable.

12. The student side of the parking lot has nicer cars than the teacher side.

13. You actively distrust your weather man.

Mother Nature controls the weatherman, the government, and the schools.

14. For every snowflake that falls, 14 people forget how to drive.

15. A sighting of or chance of a snowflake means that school is cancelled.

16. Except that one time and the results were #closeFCPS

17.Driveways begin/end right off of a main road.

18. You can see into not just the house across the street, but also the house next door.

This is a typical neighborhood set up.

19. As seen above, it's also cul de sac city

Cul de sac: also known as a dead end, a cul-de-sac, is a street with only one inlet/outlet.

20. The rest of Virginia doesn't like us because we constantly joke about wanting to succeed from the rest of the state since they don't vote for anything we favor.