When I tell people that I am from New Jersey, their automatic response is, “I’m sorry.” Back when I was in high school, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college. My older sister had attended Rutgers University, and it seemed very possible that I would wind up going there. I had every intention, early in my high school career, of staying in New Jersey for college to be close to my family and friends.
By the end of my junior year, I still had no idea where I wanted to go to college. Summer came, and my close friends started deciding where they wanted to go, and most of them had decided on not staying in New Jersey. By the middle of my senior year in high school, I had applied to eight universities, and only one was in New Jersey (two were in New York, and the others were in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts). The final choice came down to deciding whether I wanted to remain close to home or whether I wanted to branch out.
Ultimately, I decided to branch out and leave home to attend Binghamton University (a State University of New York).
“Why are you attending a New York State school if you are from New Jersey? Why don’t you go to Rutgers?” I got asked all the time at Binghamton University. Apparently, it’s uncommon for us out-of-staters to attend a SUNY school. However, that question isn’t even the worst of what I hear from my friends at school. Being from New Jersey at a New York State university, you hear every type of stereotype about the state of New Jersey that you would never hear while living there.
Apparently living in New Jersey has an aura around it from an outsider’s perspective. I constantly have to defend my home state. I am told that I live in the armpit of America. People from New York argue that New Jersey drivers are the worst kind. They tell us that our state smells, even though it’s carried over from the garbage dump in Staten Island. I get told that we are Long Island wannabes.
I have even heard people say that New Jersey is full of “hicks” even though I live 20 minutes from Manhattan. What people don’t realize is New Jersey is a gigantic loving community. I don’t know any other state where you can tell someone what parkway exit you are, and they will know exactly where you live and how far you are from them. New Jersey has been the birthplace of incredible musicians like Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, and actors like Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, and Jack Nicholson, to name a few. We also are the home of great sports teams, like the Devils, Giants, and Jets.
My best friend at Binghamton University is from New Jersey, and there are six people from New Jersey that live on my floor in my dormitory. I guess New Jersey residents attending New York State schools isn’t as uncommon as people think.
I’ve lived in New Jersey for almost 12 years. The bottom line is that I attend a SUNY school, I am from New Jersey, and I am proud of it. I will defend my home to anyone who dares stereotype it, and if people want to be naïve and believe the stereotypes, then I guess the saying is true: New Jersey – only the strong survive. – Rebecca Kaufman