When I moved to Albuquerque from the great state of New Jersey nearly three years ago, I welcomed the addition of spicy chile sauces to fill the void left in my stomach after I discovered edible pizza and bagels were nowhere to be found. I happily embraced the dry climate and wide, open spaces, both of which were also new to me.
I eventually warmed up to the friendly people of Albuquerque, who, from the start, were kind and considerate to me to what was, for me, an unheard-of degree.
I love Albuquerque, and I love New Mexico, and I like to think it loves me back. However, when my fellow New Mexico residents, or anyone from anywhere in the country other than New Jersey, for that matter, asks me where I’m from, I cringe to tell them.
I suppose some people think they’re hilarious when, upon hearing I’m from New Jersey, shoot back at me fresh comments such as, “Oh, I’m sorry,” or “So what’s it like being from the armpit of America?” or perhaps worst of all, “Are you Snooki?”
This is one aspect of New Mexico life I don’t think I’ll ever get used to.
It’s unfortunate, too, that a lot of the people who make snippy comments to me about being from New Jersey, as it turns out, have never actually been to New Jersey.
I can’t place all of the blame on Snooki, The Situation, the sassy “hairdressers” on “Jerseylicious” or any of the spoiled “real housewives” of New Jersey that dominate today’s reality television landscape, but I certainly can place some.
Sure, negative stereotypes about New Jersey existed long before any of these characters appeared on the small screen, and many of these stereotypes hold a lot of truth. As I mentioned above, I was rather uncomfortable with how freakin’ nice everyone was to me when I first moved away from my home state and started meeting people from other parts of the country.
I grew paranoid when I considered these people’s intentions.
“What, on earth, do all of these people want from me?” I thought.
Sure, the stereotype exists that people from the East Coast are generally colder than people from the Midwest or even West Coast.
But not even I would dream of insulting someone’s homeland before I had ever been there.
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The entertainment media have saturated people’s heads with so many negative ideas about my home state that I suppose people feel like they know what the state and all of the people from it are like, even if they haven’t been there and really don’t. Thanks to the television industry, as far as many non-New Jerseyans who watch these programs are concerned, we’re all drunks, we walk around in a cloud of hair spray and glitter, we’re all backstabbing and talk really nasal-y and divide most of our time between tanning salons and gyms.
I can tell you that I, for one, have never so much as set foot inside a tanning salon. Instead of wasting money on a gym membership, I run with my golden retriever Walter “Fatty” Cronkite every morning to stay in shape. I pour a glass of wine for myself every evening after work, but I typically fall asleep before I drink the whole thing and wake up in the morning with half a glass of wine on my nightstand. That, with a few exceptions, is the extent of my alcohol consumption.
So as you can see, not all New Jerseyans share the qualities of the stand-up folks you see on TV or read about in magazines.
In conclusion, as the holiday season approaches, if you come across someone from New Jersey (or Texas, which I feel is an equally discriminated-against state) and feel overcome with that holiday joy and spirit that makes you want to be kind to your fellow man or woman, think of some nice words to say about the state from which that New Jerseyan (or Texan) hails.
Or if you can’t think of anything nice to say, remember what your grade school teachers used to tell you and don’t say anything at all. You might make a new friend, or at the very least, make that person’s day suck just that much less.
