Sure, Youngstown (see also: Murder Town, USA; America’s fastest shrinking city; and the only place where the mafia still exists) might not be so glamorous, but it’s home. I’ve been to half of the fifty states and I’ve never seen a city with more character, hidden charm, and (possibly unwarranted) pride than Youngstown.

SEE ALSO: 57 Things Everyone Born And Raised In Ohio Knows To Be True

1. You can’t get Italian food anywhere but Youngstown.

2. The best part about weddings is the cookie table.

3. UCLA means University on the Corner of Lincoln Avenue.

4. Always knowing in the back of your mind that the mob might (does) still exist where you come from.

5. You have a quart of Handel’s chocolate pecan in your freezer at all times.

6. You’ve spent a decent amount of your life at or around Lanterman’s mill.

7. Spending the weekend on Lake Milton or Lake Berlin is considered a mini vacation.

8. Your idea of a big city is Cleveland or Pittsburgh, and you take day trips to both on the regular.

9. You were taken aback the first time you found out that not everyone knows what wedding soup is.

10. Your requested birthday dinner is Avalon pizza.

11. You still have the same friends and/or significant other you had in high school.

12. You’re either Italian, Irish, or Lebanese.

13. The Golden Dawn is so much more than breakfast.

14. You can’t drive 30 feet without hitting a pothole or seeing construction.

15. You feel personally victimized when someone says they’ll order pizza and then calls Papa John’s.

16. You have definitely spent a Friday night playing bocce at MVR, in between bites of Tressel tortellini or spicy bowties.

17. Jim Tressel is your idea of a celebrity.

18. You tried to go away for school but ended up back at YSU.

19. Struthers is “Strutters.”

20. “Festivals” are just churches you go to in the summer to get some incredible cavatelli and meatballs.

21. A year never passes without a trip to the Canfield Fair.

22. When you tell someone you’re from Youngstown, they respond, “Shit, I’m not gonna mess with you.”

23. ...Or you spend 5 minutes explaining that it’s halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

24. You have spent countless fall days at White House Fruit Farm munching on blueberry donuts and sipping 10 cent apple cider, paid for via the honors system.

25. You can go anywhere around the world and you’re guaranteed to see someone from Youngstown.

26. At least 5 people you know work at GM.

27. Your grandmother makes the best Sunday spaghetti, and you won’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

28. Your mom pretends like she needs to feed an orphanage of ravioli-hungry children on Christmas, and probably posts on Facebook that anyone who doesn’t have anywhere to spend the holiday is more than welcome into your home.

29. “Going downtown” means going to an Italian restaurant on Federal Street, whose owner probably went to high school with your parents.

30. When you’re driving downtown at night, you don’t stop at red lights.

31. You felt a chill through your entire body when you found out the Gallagher building is being renovated.

32. No matter where you are now, you will always proudly say “Y-town is my town.