Cincinnati is a city divided. West Side and East Side. The following is what it is like for me and for many others growing up on the West Side of the Queen City.

1. You live for rival games like Elder vs X and Seton vs Mercy

These are the games you are forced to get to early, so you are able to get a good seat in the stands or even a seat at all. It is a game filled with back and forth banter that gets you even more excited after each touchdown, goal, point, etc. A game that is hyped up weeks before it even happens. A game that brings out the best and worst in its fans.

2. Price Hill Chili after the game

There are one place and one place only that is perfect for you and your team to eat after a big game…Price Hull Chili. You know once you walk into PHC you will have to squeeze your way past the crowd that surrounds the bar and the popcorn machine. You will slowly but surely make your way to the garden room where you will sit with your teammates and share endless conversations and laughs, that is until your food is placed in front of your face and the whole table becomes to consumed in their food to talk.

3. You have the utmost pride for your high school

Cincinnati is the place known for when people ask you what school you went to you say your high school. You wear your school’s spirit wear with pride and when you see your fellow classmates or alumni you immediately start to say your school’s most popular cheers. As a student, it is hard to say goodbye and as an alumna, it is so exciting to say hello again.

4. Elder Football games are the place to be on Fridays nights

Thursday nights are always the nights for planning for the big game. Would you carpool with your friends to the game or meet them at the flagpole? If you are a girl you always have to sift through your brother’s drawers to find an old elder shirt that he would notice if you took. Always taking pictures with captions like “#54 on the field but #1 in my heart” or “Friday nights under the lights” You can’t help but smile when passing the loud cheering section. Every time our team scores the cheering only gets louder. No matter what the score is, the atmosphere is unreal.

5. You will see at least one family you know when you eat dinner at Larosas

Larosas is always the perfect place to go with your family for dinner. An easy place for the whole family to agree on. Without a shadow of a doubt, you will see another family that you know there as well. Maybe even your next-door neighbor. But we all know the best part of the meal is not the pizza, it’s the mints.

6. When in doubt, go to Skyline

Skyline is the simple choice when you and your friends want to go get something to eat, but it’s the right choice. The first place you will go when you get your license is to your friends’ houses and then to the skyline. There are many Skylines for you to choose from on the Westside, but you know which one is the best and which one is the worst. You defend your favorite Skyline with your last breath. Skyline is the type of place where you don’t care if you had it for lunch and then your friends want to get it for dinner, it never gets old.

7. Growing up knowing West side = Best side

Growing up on the West side you learn that the Westside truly is the best side. You can’t imagine having grown up in a different place. Yes, you might leave to go live your life somewhere else, but the day you get to come back to the West side a feeling overwhelms you, a feeling where you know you are home. The day you come back to Cincinnati and see your first Skyline sign in days, weeks, months, years… you will never not smile.