1. You ask "So what do you do" within five minutes of starting a conversation.
It doesn’t matter where or when you meet someone, you almost always immediately ask about their career or job title.
2. Craving Ethiopian food.
Once you’ve lived in DC, you never under appreciate delicious Ethiopian food ever again.
3. Superb parallel parking skills.
If you have a car in DC, you definitely know how to parallel park it and you’ve probably gotten really good at finding parking spots and estimating exactly how much time you have left on the meter.
4. Fantastic balance on the Metro.
You can squeeze yourself into the tightest Metro card, pulling your arm in right before the door closes. And you can keep yourself upright as the car lurches and jerks into start and stops.
5. You know the Metro lines and the stops.
And speaking of the Metro, you will never forget the Metro lines, where they go, how they intersect and what stop is on what line.
6. High expectations of museums.
We have some of the best and most impressive museums in the world in DC so we absolutely judge every other one we visit. And many do not live up to our standards.
7. You always believe in DC sports teams.
No matter how horribly a team has lost the season before, when the new season rolls around, we always have a childlike optimism about our championship chances.
8. You’ve perfected the DC walk
You know to walk a brisk pace, keep your head down and avoid eye contact. You’ve spent a lifetime dodging tourists, protests, news crews and survey takers.
9. You love brunch and always will.
Washingtonians cannot turn down brunch. It’s our favorite meal of the day.
10. You’re politically active.
No matter what your political beliefs are, you learn to express them and talk about them in DC. It’s impossible to not get hooked into the political news cycle here.
11. Never being able to drive in snow.
DC just does snow days so badly that we never quite learn how to master driving a car in snow or ice.
12. You never refer it to as Washington DC.
You either are from DC or the District. No matter how long you’ve been gone or where you go, you’ll never refer it to as Washington DC.
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