So, I have lived in Massachusetts my entire life. I was born in the South Shore where my parents grew up, I was raised in Worcester, and now I go to school in Boston. I know what people are like here. And not to be totally biased, I have visited family and vacationed in multiple other places (such as Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, New York, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, California, and Montana), so I have been near other places. Plus a good majority of kids in my high school were from immigrant families with totally different cultures.
As a result of this, I don’t appreciate it when someone from another state who now lives in Massachusetts (namely, one of my roommates) tries to cut us down saying the meanest people live in Massachusetts. I mean, she’s a Yankees fan from Florida!
And so I get being a member of the Evil Empire who grew up around old people can skewer your perception of reality, but really, Massachusetts people aren’t that bad, especially when your only real interactions with the natives have been in Boston and Marblehead. Because that’s really not very indicative of the state as a whole.
Yeah, we can be a bunch of “Massholes” at times, but that doesn’t imply meanness, it merely implies that we are a tough breed of people who know what we want and don’t take shit. And really, you have to take a look at the whole picture. Everyone I’ve met from Western MA has always been polite and nature loving (not to get into any real stereotypes, I am just basing this off my own experiences). And Central MA often gets forgotten, but we are the heart of the Commonwealth. Worcester, while taking on a rough reputation (I would know, coming from that Main South neighborhood that helped spawn it…though I cam out unscathed), still has a lot to offer. Like friendly people who work at the wildlife sanctuary and art museum and scenery that shifts from city to suburb in an instant to create a unique sense of identity. And here in Boston, if you can’t laugh at the sterotypes, then maybe you need the reality check.
Yes, we love our Red Sox, and yes, many men would go gay for Brady, but it’s what we have and it’s steeped into our history, which we value and do not take lightly. But really, you can’t pass judgement until you’ve seen the whole picture, not just a snipet of people from a college neighborhood, many of whom haven’t lived their whole lives here.
But in the end, we’re just wicked awesome and the opinions of a Yankees fan mean nothing.
