April Awakening: Day Thirteen ☁️⛅️🌬️
Although I’m technically a Manhattanite, I still can classify myself as a Jersey Girl, though I’m admittedly not much of one. I grew up around here, never pumping my own gas, only occasionally getting lost on the never-ending backroads with my buddies. But there’s no comparison to the homegrown deals. New Jerseyans have a special connection to this place that I am lacking. But perhaps that’s just because I hadn’t gotten out of my comfort zone enough to see why this place is more special than people think.
When I would come home in the past, I’d pretty much just stay put in my hometown. There’s plenty of things here, we can get all we need, and I never saw a need to go anywhere else. I love my hometown, but it’s only a small subsection of the entirety of the Garden State. It’s only recently I’ve been venturing out past county lines, seeing what else this state has to offer. And based on what I’ve seen so far, the adventure may be more close to home than I think.
My friend has been planning day trips for us to small New Jersey towns. He takes me to shops he thinks I’ll like, including vintage shops, bookstores, places full of odds and ends. Seeing these places that are only a half-hour away from home remind me of the towns I see when I’m elsewhere; the small business shops in the middle of nowhere that offer me an experience I think I’m only afforded while on vacation. But I can see it here in a state I once dismissed as boring and uninteresting, and I’m graciously being shown it’s anything but.
New Jersey unfortunately gets a bad rap to the rest of America, but if you’ve never actually been here, I don’t think that’s fair. You can be in a city one moment, only to travel a bit down the road and find yourself in the rolling hills of horse country. Find the highway and it’s a hop, skip, and a jump to the shore. I say give the Garden State a chance. Ignore it’s dingus for a governor and just get over here. Like all of these fifty states of ours, it’s its own little world with plenty to do and see. Call me bias, but I’m finding more reasons to love appreciate the tiny state I keep finding myself calling home.