Jersey Girl

I'm going back to Jersey this week if only for 3 days and I'm as happy as ever.

I wish we could pack up and move back. If Greg told me tomorrow he had a job offer there, I would be packing my bags in the same breath.

I've been "removed" from New Jersey since 1997 when my parents moved to Virginia and I left the state to go to College right outside of Philadelphia. It's been 15 years since my feet were firmly planted on the glowing orange Jersey soil breathing in the noxious fumes of the northern Jersey turnpike.

It was home, it is home.

Family was ever just an hour (tops! or less!) drive in either direction. I grew up with everyone. Holidays were always fun. If anyone in the family was having a party, someone was getting married, graduating, had a baby, or having a BBQ, we would be there, no question about it. When I was a kid, I found it rather annoying having to spend so much time with my extended family, but when I reflect back now, was I ever lucky to have grown up with my entire family living within a 40 mile radius of me.

My kids don't even have a small piece of that. They have nobody but us, but I digress.

My brothers and I could be with anyone and do anything we wanted at any time. You want to spend a week at Grandma's? Sure! We could be "down the shore", in "the city", or just as happy sitting on "the stoop" all year round. And we didn't have much money so we invented things that resembled what we saw on television. For instance: a "Slip and Slide" made from garbage bags and sticks.

That did not turn out so well.

A lot of my Dad's side of the family still lives there. Mom's side has spread out a bit, but many of them still live there too. It was where all of us settled after coming off the boats early last century. Both sets of my Great Grandparents came over here from Europe and settled in NJ shortly after World War I and from there, our American family was born, raised, and born again. We all lived in New Jersey. ALL of us.

I am all Jersey, through and through. My Great Grandparents were immigrants, my Grandparents were born and raised in New Jersey, my parents were born and raised in New Jersey, and I was born and raised in New Jersey. And anyone who knows me, KNOWS where I came from. It's easy to tell.

A girl from New Jersey is different.

I have a mind. I don't care if you think I'm right, or I'm wrong. I'm going to say it anyway. I wasn't raised to have a filter. I wasn't raised to sit quietly. If I love someone, I will show it, if I hate you, you will know it. I will not only dish it out to you, but I can take it too and it never bothers me. I'm not easily offended, but can be horribly offensive if you don't understand where I am coming from. I can be abrasive, brutally honest, but will also lay down my life for you because I am fiercely loyal. I will not stab you in the back, I will do it from the front. I have one hell of a right hook. Some of the things I say, or do may be considered off color, but I always mean well. I will not hesitate to tell you what I think, what I feel, and what I believe. I will respect your views even if you do not respect mine. I will not hesitate to stand up for myself, my family, my friends if they are hurt, or threatened. You probably don't want to cross me. It won't be a good time for you. Some have learned that the hard way. At other times, I will allow people to undermine me and bury themselves.

I'm a Jersey Girl and I'm pretty sure the only other people who understand that term are other Jersey Girls. It's true that we are different. We have a bad rep: big hair, obnoxious nasally voices, dark lipstick, heavy accents, fake tans, and possible mafia family members, but we might also be the most real women out there. We aren't afraid to be who we are. I don't know why. Maybe because we mostly come from immigrant families that are still relatively new here and we had to stake our place in this country.

There was no other way to survive than to stick our feet into the ground and root.