We asked, you answered: When did you become an Atlantan?

Axios

04-06-2025

What makes someone declare they're a true Atlantan?
Sometimes it's a neighborhood block party or an appreciation of our lush tree canopy.
Moments that just hit right
⚾️ "I became an Atlantan when the Braves won the World World Series in 2021," Jeremy M. "I had lived here for the better part of 15 years, met my wife here and had four children in the city. But it took a Braves World Series to call this great city home!"
🚴 Trish A., an avid cyclist who's biked more than 135,000 hilly miles over the past 30 years and says she has the thighs to prove it, walked out of an East Atlanta bar in 2000.
"Two guys in an older giant sedan maybe from the late 80s?) roll by and say 'Girlfriend, you got some big ole thighs on you!'"
"As a cyclist all I could do was smile and say 'Thanks!' That's when I knew I was an Atlantan."
🥹 Bruce T.'s Atlanta roots go back three generations but he always felt the city was too provincial. He truly fell in love with the city on the first day back from study abroad while driving to Buckhead lunch and back.
"I pulled into a gas station parking lot, put my head down on the steering wheel and cried, half in joy over being back, half in frustration that I knew I would stay," he said.
"Like it or not, I was home. I'm 62 years old, and I've watched my city grow up around me and I've grown to love it."
Nature and neighborhoods
🫢 "I experienced all four seasons for the first time in my 60 years," said Diana W., a recent arrival from Southern California.
"It was amazing to watch the trees change, the weather shift and the smells take over. I was able to change my wardrobe accordingly. That is when I said out loud 'This is home.'"
🌇 Four years ago, Wayne H. and his partner "became Atlantans" when they finally realized, after more than 30 years here, "that we keep coming back."
"Both of us are northeastern natives (too cold), lived part time in both South Florida (too hot, crazy politics), and the North Carolina mountains (too rural). We keep coming back to Midtown Atlanta — our city has everything we love!"
📍 After stints in Raleigh and Nashville, Weston B. returned to Atlanta in 2019 and moved into a Virginia-Highland rental with his wife within walking distance to the Beltline and Piedmont Park.
"When Covid hit we couldn't have been in a better position. We now own a home in the Decatur area, but we're never leaving Atlanta."
🏇 A Kentucky Derby party in Cabbagetown lured Kate S. back after graduate school. "Friends closed off several streets in Cabbagetown by shoving old couches in the way of car traffic.
"At some point, as we held our own costumed, wheeled race around the streets, culminating in a spontaneous dance party, this place became home. I moved back in 2009 and it's been home ever since."