As I always stated, I am proud to be from Chicago, Illinois. The culture, the food, the sports...basically everything. I'm born and raised there, so I stick my chest to let it be known: "773312" (our main area codes) is me. (While you read my article, play this link to get a feel what I mean)

It pains me to watch people who are not from my city, claim as their own. I remember reading an article on here called Stop Yelling At Me For Saying I Am From Chicago. It was about the author basically saying that why she can't claim Chicago since she always visits. She's from a suburban area called "Crystal Lake, Illinois", so she fibs because she thinks that people outside of Illinois wouldn't care about her hometown. Her main point were she visits so often that she should claim it, explaining how it's a part of her, and that it shouldn't be a problem.

I had a problem with it though. To me, she is a tourist. You only visit, but you never lived. You don't know what's going on outside of the downtown area. My city is your escape, not you're virtue. I commented on her article to encourage her to tell people that she's from Crystal Lake and stop lying about it because outsiders are used to the "I'm from Chicago" line. I would like to know about Crystal Lake because I never heard of it until now and I would like to know what goes down there. Let them know about Crystal Lake, girl! Be proud from where you from.

I go to school in Arkansas, where I only knew about the cities of "Little Rock" and "Pine Bluff", but I was introduced to people who were from all corners of Arkansas because they were honest and proud about theirs. I never seen people from East St. Louis, IL, automatically claim "St. Louis, MO" because that's not in their hearts. I just want people to just be honest and never claim what you don't know because you never know who will bust you out for it. I know I have...plenty of times.

If your mailing address don't say "Chicago", don't claim it. You're not from Chicago. Represent what you know! Be proud, that's all I'm saying.