I moved to Central NJ in September 2005 after living my whole life in North Jersey and I honestly never totally felt like I belong.
When Peter and I got married, Peter moved to Little Ferry into my condo at Ledgewood, I loved that darn condo, it was my home that I bought all by myself, all $71,000 of it in 1995, I was not going anywhere, this is where I belonged. I was North Jersey, I was urban, anyone in the "south" part of NJ was a hick, people there say "hoagie" what the hell is that, its a hero people??!! Then we realized that Little Ferry to Cherry Hill for Peter to go to work was like 90 miles ONE way and Peter could not do this forever but heck my job was 7 miles from home, whats the issue? LOL
So we decided lets move in the middle and I would work on moving to a new school district to hopefully one day work close to home and Peter would only have to commute 35 or so minutes to work, so off to Central NJ. Somehow we found our town, our house and here we are. I like my house although I would love a another bedroom, I am not super fond of my town and would welcome a move if the real estate market came back but that's a whole other post. I do love that we have a really big fenced in backyard and a nice bunch of neighbors on both sides,but I always felt like I did not belong 100%. Frankly when we first moved here I was quite depressed and remember saying to Peter "I could fall over and die in the driveway and no one would care about it at all" I wanted to go home but I would have never said that, this was where we needed to be but I longed for friends that were local all while missing my friends that were back home
I then was lucky enough to get a local job in a school district in the town directly west of the town I live, its like 10 miles door to door and I was so very happy to not have the commute anymore. Although again, I was starting over and now I did not even have the connection to North Jersey on a daily basis and again I felt more depressed. But I met some new people at work and it felt more and more like home, but again never like when I lived where I grew up and went to school.
Then the daycare debacle happened and I reached out to the families of the students in our little school. The school that really was very family like unlike our new very big school, through this sad time I started speaking more and more to one mom (you know who you are, I'll leave it at that) and it really has made me feel so much more like I belong. I long for friends that understand me and she absolutely does, actually I think she is my twin who was separated from me at birth we are so alike. While I still have that in my old friends whom I love dearly, frankly I just have such a hard time getting up to see them in North Jersey between work and having a 4 year old.
I really love Central NJ and have for a while and know that I would never return to live in North Jersey ever again. I love the open space, the lack of traffic and living among things like farms and horses, the horses I pass everyday going to work instead of the factories and malls. I love that my parents sacrificed to come here to be near Ryan and know they like it here too, this is now our home. I love all the people I met here but meeting this new friend has made me feel more like I belong, feel more like I have a friend here instead of people I am friendly with, it's really great
To you the friend I am speaking about I am thankful to have met you and hope we will be friends for a long time :-)
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