Opinion: It’s Always the 4th of July on Long Island

Everybody who came to live on Long Island over the years knows they made a great choice. Besides the beauty , the salt water breezes and big sky sunsets every night, there is so much more to living life on Long Island.

I suppose people come from all over the country to “make it in NYC,” but people come to Long Island to “live.” One factor in almost everyone coming to the island was for a better life. They chose to leave somewhere to come here for better housing, neighborhoods, schools settings, yards, parks, proximity to great beaches, job opportunities all adding up to a better quality of life for folks who maybe felt like underdogs.

The energy of the island seems to foster imagination. After all who does “fun and crazy” better than Long Islanders? Long Islanders celebrate their lives everyday with a certain kinship being extremely proud of being Long Islanders. When they are not “on Long Island,” they feel it , they know it, and they miss it, and always eventually seem in a hurry to get back to “the island.” They are comfortable with dealing with each other. They know everyone somehow is a character with that unique Long Island sense of humor but with an ability to think outside the box to get many impossible things done by sheer will.

Living on the island is not always a picnic. Traffic, severe storms, and let’s face going west on sunset evenings with the blinding blazing sun in your face is never pleasant, but along Islanders deal with it. They know flooding, they know traffic delays, but what they don’t know is feeling lost whenever they are occupying any space on Long Island.

Everyday because of the very independent nature of Long Islanders is Independence Day. Too many Long Islanders have fought in all of the country’s wars but all Long Islanders cherish the freedoms those wars created and preserved. When you are walking a beach, a park trail, or driving with the windows open or riding on a bicycle or a motorcycle and you feel that Long Island sea breeze you know it’s special on Long Island because it never feels the same anywhere else.