I'm from the yellow portion of this map. Though I live in Michigan now and have since 2012, Western New York will always be home. New York was the 11th state to become a state on July 26, 1788, with Albany as its capital.
Its funny how many people assume that NY is mostly made up of NYC. New York State occupies 47,214 square miles and only 303 of those miles makes up NYC. The population in New York is 19,745,289 (3rd highest population in the country!) with an estimated 8,500,000 people living in NYC.
Its pretty amusing how many people believe that New York state is made up solely of NYC. There is SO MUCH MORE! To be honest, I've never even BEEN to NYC. I can't count how many times someone online asked where I was from and immediately assumed I lived in the " big city " and asked me NYC questions. I remember back around 2001 and a few years after, when I would tell people online that I was from NY and they would respond like this: " OMG!!! I am SO SORRY!!! Did you know people who died on 9/11!? " No.. no I didn't. I mean, it was scarier that one of the planes hit in the middle of PA because it was closer to us than NYC was.
Anyway, lesson of the day! New York is a HUGE state! We are so much more than NYC! ~♥ Meows