I am going to begin by saying that I attend a university at which the majority of the student population is from the Northeast, and within that majority, most people are from Long Island. I have absolutely nothing against Long Island. Some of my best friends are from Long Island. I love going to Jones, and, hey, they’re great at lacrosse. However, one thing that people from Long Island, or anywhere else for that matter, need to stop doing, is telling me that I am from upstate New York. Westchester is not upstate, dammit.

Technically speaking, yes, I live further up in the state than you do. Yet, you are not looking at the grand scheme of things. You need to see the overall picture. This is what New York looks like:

Now, please take note of where Westchester County is located on this lovely map:

In case you couldn't figure it out, Westchester is the FURTHEST SOUTH county of all the counties before reaching the boroughs and all of that city jazz. Do you see how much more UPSTATE it is possible to get from Westchester?

The further upstate you go, the more the New York accent that you're all used to hearing, turns into somewhat of a country accent. The civilization is spread further apart by farmland. And hunting, fishing, and camping are some of the activities that seem to reign supreme. Hey, again, no disrespect toward people from upstate. I'm just trying to point out that those of us from Westchester consider our lifestyle to be different compared to what we think of as "upstate." So, I'm sorry, but when someone calls us upstate, we get defensive.

This may seem extremely trivial, and truthfully, it is. Why do we care so much? I really couldn't tell you. I suppose it's the principle of the matter. If you tell anyone from Westchester that they're from upstate, I promise that you will get a very informative, and very self-justifying, speech on how they are most definitely not. Just let us have this, OK?