What It's Like to Live In...Cincinnati

When your editors were in high school, we hung out in the gravel pits, ate meatball subs at Alexander's Pizza, and went to Jared's house because his parents were never, ever home. (Now we live in New York, land of sandwiches, plays, rats, and bingo night hosted by drag king Murray Hill!) We got to wondering: what's life like where you live? You Sparklers come from all over the world, and we want to hear what goes on in your town/village/city/underwater cave! First up: the inside scoop on Cincinnati, courtesy of synchrogirl117. —SparkNotes editors

Hello there, Sparklers of the world! In case you didn't know this (and you totally should, it was in my last interview on Oprah!  Cause I'm famous, you know), I live in the charming city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a lovely place, with flowers and butterflies and sparkly vampires. Seriously. We even have a unicorn sanctuary.

Lemme give you the lowdown. Cincinnati has three parts: the West side, the East side, and downtown. The East side is considered the nicer side. Actually, the residents of my sheltered little East side township think the West side is scary—like sketchy, gangster, duck-at-intersections-or-you'll-get-shot scary. They think I'm really BA because I'm over there four nights a week for swim practice. I've even spent the night over there before, and I'm not dead yet! So though there are definitely some sketchy parts, the West side is not nearly as bad as people think. But the general opinion is East side: good, West side, bad. Downtown is kind of in between.

Okay, so now that you know all that, I present *drum roll*: The Places I Hang Out In Cincinnati!

This is going to sound very pathetic. Consider yourself warned. Most of the kids at my school don't really go anywhere special to hang out. We usually go to someone's house. But if not, we go one of these six places:

1. Chipotle
In case you are unfamiliar with the deliciousness of Chipotle, it is a wonderful Mexican grill restaurant. Like a make-your-own-burrito-and-here-have-some-chips-with-that kind of place. It's pretty good, and all the people at my school have a strange obsession with it.

2. Starbucks
Yeah, we go to a lot of restaurants. But hey, who doesn't like coffee? Plus they have free Wi-Fi!  Whatever you do, DO NOT ask for a "large." It's a Venti, dammit!

3. Kroger
There is always someone who needs something from Kroger. Food, a birthday card, something cute to use to ask someone to a dance. So why not take everyone? We make it a party!

4. Moe's
Noticing a theme here? What can I say, we like food! Just so you know, this particular place is also Mexican. But mostly people go here because it's close to school.

5. Parks
In the summer, a lot of high schoolers go to parks! We have picnics, parties, extracurricular meetings...It's actually really cool because even if I wasn't going to meet someone, I almost always see someone I know if I go to a park. Plus, they have swings! I LOVE swings! And slides and everything! You can't get much better than that. Unless you go to...

6. The Pool!
Again, this is just in the summer, but everyone goes to pools from around May to September. If you're lucky enough to have someone invite you to their private pool, then kudos to you, but otherwise there are plenty of public pools to choose from. Everyone loves to swim, right? Plus people like to show off their tans and bodies, so everyone wins.

What do you do for fun where you live? Submit your edited list to contribute@sparknotes.com!

Related post: A Day in the Life of a Public High School Kid