I am from Washington, DC.  But what does that mean? It is something we can all disagree on.

I celebrated my decade inside the beltway this August, and I am excited because I feel I finally have some some true "cred" for claiming to be from DC.

A city of so many transients, I'll venture to say that longer-term residents tend to belittle newcomers (read: residents of 6 or 8 years) insisting no one can claim to be from DC until they have been here...well, usually as many years as the  belittler has been here. It is a pissing contest that even grandmothers might engage in with the impertinent upstart. You are forewarned.

Welcome to life inside the beltway, where politics and policies are often bandied as much or more as sports and the niches are small and messily overlapping. And while someone's expertise might be of great worth in their field, they stand an even chance of being snubbed if they are not of specific use to someone else. Every bad thing you hear people say about DC is true, just in the end most of it isn't all that bad.

You may not plan to stick around, but you might as well get to know everyone while you are here. I did, and I love it for what it is. (Ignore it being conceivable that in a decade I lost the ability to talk to average Americans, forcing me to stay hidden in my bastion of safety with travel only to Europe.)

As with every city, DC has many faces. In broad strokes, I have hewn the cultural morass into a few rather rough categories. DC, a primer:

The young and the hip

University Life, quickly: "Gtown" is home of a good many libertarians, GW has the movers and shakers for better or worse, AU doesn't like ambition to sully their intellectual integrity, everyone at Catholic is intensely nice, College Park is the heart of frat-dom, and everything else is too far away to matter, though GMU will dislike that assertion. The atmosphere between the schools is, in fact, quite collegial.

Gay DC, many of whom are no longer young, rightly claims Dupont Cirlce for stomping grounds as you have no doubt heard, but really it is diluted and spills over several neighborhoods eastward as the young families roll in behind them with chain stores and strollers. The neighborhood lines are never fixed in DC.

Gentrifiers, often the post-college stroller wielders combined with the gay community,  are fringing the edges to the east buying out neighborhoods and inspiring new business.

Mt. Pleasant, arguably the dying heart of the Hispanic community in DC, was recently  gobbled up by gentrifiers. Where do those displaced go? No one knows exactly but most likely the suburbs.

Oh, and let's not forget the hippies. Takoma Park, MD, not to be confused with Takoma, DC, has many self-proclaimed hippies with a great farmer's market and active activism.

Official Washington

With Capitol Hill, everyone has preconceptions, but these are not incorrect. And yet, give the devil its due; it is half the reason everyone else is here. Torture your logic to follow the chain if you must, but most things in DC tie back to the goings on of the halls of Congress. Also in this mix you will find the higher level political appointees, the cabinet, the judiciary, the State Department, Breton Woods, the think tanks, lobbying groups, the media, the intelligentsia, the embassies and expats, and most of the lawyers, all catered to by the fantastic restaurant world and all living, in large part, in Georgetown, Kalorama, and Spring Valley.

Real DC

I did not choose this title; it is well established. I would be remiss to not address that perceptually there is a divide, at times wide and gaping and others barely discernible but still enough to trip anyone up, that supposedly separates "real DC" from much of the rest of it. Is the divide socioeconomic? Is it racial? Is it as I would guess none-so-wrought as all that? Everyone has to decide this on their own.

I will say that DC has an amazing recent history related to the civil rights movement and home rule. Take a walking tour, talk to older residents, and learn. The city's history, often overshadowed by national history, is rich and interesting.

Much of Real DC consists of the City Government; almost the entire eastern half of the city; Prince George's County, Maryland; and many of the local Churches.

Everyone else

Lest we forget, there's also the bureaucracy, countless National associations, the service sector, contractors big and small for defense or for HHS, a budding IT sector, the military installations, the not-for-profit world, the museum community, and the medical community. These individuals tend to live in the suburbs in and out of the beltway. While varied in character, you'll hear about Bethesda, Chevy Chase, McClean, Arlington, Alexandria, Silver Spring, etc. Relegating these areas and the farther out communities to simply the 'burbs really does a disservice to 3.5 million residents of the metro area that make up our 4.1. Many lived in the district once too, but they moved out for better schools or lower rents.

Those truly forgotten

DC, not unlike many US cities, has a significant homeless population. Most visible every day are the older men panhandling and sleeping on grates while women and children take priority for shelter care. What, if anything, you do to help is up to you, but give it some thought. When faced so regularly with the abjectly downtrodden it may, if secretly, prey upon your heart and mind.

Outsiders

Tourists: our common enemy. Soon you will start to decry bitterly that people are inhibiting you by standing on the left of the escalator on the metro instead of walking. It will not matter who you are or where you are from. Once you realize this simple truth and properly despise their ignorance above all other things big and small, you too will be from DC.