dc pride

yeah, i got the dc flag tattooed on me, and yes, it's a rather large tattoo. this was tattoo number five for me and probably one of my favorites. sure, it's simple, but it means so much. many people balk and wonder why i have the dc flag permanently on my body. well, i grew up here for one. yeah, i actually grew up in dc, brookland to be exact. it's a wonderful, quiet part of the city that has the nickname "little vatican" thanks to three catholic churches, two catholic colleges, a catholic grade school (mine!), and a smattering of religious houses and seminaries to name a few. i grew up fives houses away from the house my mom and uncle grew up in, so my grandparents lived there. even my great grandparents lived on the same block at one point. we utilized the park at the end of the block, and i spent my summers learning to play tennis and my autumns playing on the soccer team. brookland is a great neighborhood that seems to evolve silently while dc itself has changed so much.
so alas, i moved from brookland to dupont circle eight years ago. being raised a city girl, i love being in the middle of the action and walking distance to a ton of great destinations, restaurants, and bars. i have never owned a car and get around via bike, my feet, or public transportation. it's fantastic!
within the last couple of years, dc has seen a huge gentrification process. neighborhoods that were filled with poverty and blight are now home to expensive "lofts" and fancy restaurants. soon a whole breed of hipsters were filling the streets, many of them sporting dc flag tattoos and a great percentage of them new to dc from their suburban upbringing. for some reason, this kind of irked me. maybe because i endured years of people assuming you lived in the ghetto because of your address. i'm not going to lie, the playground was often littered with drug paraphernalia and used condoms, but you told your parents or the teacher, avoided those items, and continued to play hide and go seek. hey, it was dc in the eighties and early nineties, and we had our crackhead mayor for life, marion barry! by the way, the hbo documentary on him does an excellent job of capturing what dc was like during that period. screw the fact that the president lives here, we were known for crack and being the murder capital of the world, and i as i like to say we were the "capital of crack". i experienced these tumultuous times first hand, and it shaped me in to the person i am now; fearless, cynical, and the ability to laugh at even the worst situation. i love this city! there is so much beauty and history here. i find myself just taking in the people, sites, and smells whilst walking or biking. i love it here, and that is exactly why i chose to permanently put our flag on my body.