If you are from Massapequa you know that not only your house is your home and that your friends are your family.

When you leave, you find yourself homesick-- longing for the feeling of comfort and belonging. It is a big town with a small-town feel. Soon enough everyone you see becomes someone you know.

So, what does it really mean to be from Massapequa, New York?

Chances are both or one of your parents grew up in Massapequa.

So you really cannot get away from knowing at least one person behind every corner of every place you go. Many families have multiple generations of Massapequa High School graduates; check your yearbooks with your parents, for I am sure you will find some connections. Also, along with your parents growing up here, they may have never moved and chances are their siblings stayed too. Not only is graduating with second or third generation Chiefs common, but so is graduating with your own family members.

Only Massapequans we will ever understand the wacky school district we have come to know and love.

Having a school just for Freshman actually helped us and prepared us more for the main campus. More importantly, there was one year Birch Lane Elementary could not fit all of its students and the kindergarteners had to go to Unqua-- imagine the riot that went down at that PTA meeting.

The best part of the town is by far its athletics.

Whether you played on varsity or just for fun, chances are you have at least tried one sport in your lifetime. Even if you did not play sports, you would always find yourself being at games cheering on friends and family.

Being from Massapequa does not always rub the right way on certain people.

They tend to assume we are all rich and snobby. This does not define our town as a whole. When I think of Massapequa I think of home-- love, comfort, community, belonging.

While living through this, you tend to hate it and swear the best day of your life will be the day you leave.

Truthfully, there is no feeling that compares to this feeling of comfort and belonging. Once you leave, you count down the days until you return. The world is a big, cold, scary, lonely place. You realize you had the world in the palm of your hands-- everyone always willing to help you before they were able to help themselves.

Everyone always says that Massapequa is a bubble and it is good to get out of. There is a whole world out there to experience, so go out there and see all there is to see. Just remember, even when you do leave, you will always find your way back home.

Once a Chief, always a Chief.