This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Western chapter.

Hey there, fellow Londoner. Looks like you and I, among thousands of others, decided Western University was the place for us. Over your time here you’ve probably experienced the same few things that I have, and I bet those thousands of others have too. If you’re from London and you’re repping Western, you know these next eight facts to be true and hopefully will find comfort in the fact that you are not alone:

1) You, at some point in high school, wanted to get the hell outta dodge

Before you’re 18 or 19 and have some freedom, London sucks. The places downtown close early, activities seem expensive, and either your friends are around the corner or are on the other side of the city but attend your high school because they hate the one they’re near. Toronto seems so alive. Waterloo is close-knit and academically great with cute cafés. Guelph is the place to be because you’re going to be a kick-ass engineer or veterinarian. You think you just might love it there, you think any place has to be better than here. Think again, younger you. The truth is coming, and it’s that school is expensive and staying is easy and it’s just where your heart is at.

2) Bars are either way better or way worse in the summer

Let’s be honest, Frog is a damn nightmare during the school year and you only know that because you’ve attended it in the summer. It’s the cheapest yet clubbiest one, so it’s a happy medium for your new Toronto friends, and your friends from the middle of nowhere can now sow their wild oats. In the summer, it’s far less busy so you can breathe. Your high school friends have returned and you can finally dance with them in a place not overrun by students because the population of London has returned to normal. In the summer, the bars we love have calmed down and our London peers have returned and we LOVE that. The other side of this is some bars end up dead and boring and depend on the students to thrive and come alive. However, Barney’s is open again and that’s always a beautiful thing. These are our people, and honestly, we’ve missed them.

3) You know all the superior restaurants, and you’re not telling

I know better than to out them right here and now, but you know what I’m talking about. Those little restaurants that are hiding from those who live here for eight months of the year. These places are still kinda quiet, buzzing only for those who have found them within their first 17-18 years. These are the places you can go to when you need a minute. When you want to see the people you grew up with, these are the places you go to because they are untouched by your frantic university friends. Enjoy them, and hide them. They are for us.

4) You never get sick of Victoria Park in the winter

Ever since you were a child, you have been a part of Victoria Park in the winter. Every year, you can feel its wintery magic. People let you pet their dogs, you can go skating, the lights are always amazing. Victoria Park is a part of who you are, and you can 100% understand the excitement your university/ new-to-London friends have about the ordeal.

5) You don’t understand ALL their excitement, though

You understand your pals are new to London and so everything is exciting to them, but your initial thought a lot of the time is “What, why?” You grew up studying or walking around the Covent Garden Market, so to you it’s just this small, handy place you would not dare enter on a Saturday and Sunday morning unless you have a game plan. But to them, it’s this cool hipster place. Bongo man outside Starbs or Queens and Richmond is just as normal as the buildings that have been there since 1862, and the Knights kicking ass is just as surprising as Sunfest returning for another year. You let your friends have it, though; it’s a perk of moving to a new city, and their excitement brings you a small amount of pride because it’s been yours all your life.

6) You’re bound to run into someone who knows your parents

You’ve probably fallen victim to the weird phenomenon of finding people who know your parents in one way or another. Whether it’s through high school or a friend of a friend, the ways you learn of these connections never fails to amaze you. Someone will always know one or both of your parents, and they will find you, and they will tell the world that they found you. Your new-to-London friends will find it strange and hilarious but for you, it’s just another day in your hometown of London, Ontario.

7) You both love and loathe your city

Budweiser Gardens in your backyard? Love. LTC? Loathe. Seeing your high school teachers at Barney’s or touring Western with future Mustangs? Love! The construction you can literally never escape? Loathe. The list goes on (as you know), but this is where you are. For everything. So you choose to love it a little more than you hate it.

In the end, you’re purple through and through and that makes you extra proud.

You grew up hearing about the Mustangs and seeing purple everywhere you went. You learned in high school that the university that has been in your backyard forever is one of the best in the country and you were born and raised in its purple and white light. You got accepted into your hometown once again and so you are purple through and through my fellow Mustang, and this is your town in every sense of the word. Only you and those who share these eight things with you can say that, and that makes you extra proud of where you come from and where you’re going.

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7 Well-Known Facts if you’re a Mustang from London