Oh New York? What part?
When I first started making friends at Northeastern, a large number of people that I met were from the New York City area. I always would get frustrated by the fact that “EVERYONE” lived in New York City, but nobody technically lived in New York City. It’s ironic that I live in this area now, because I struggle to come to grips with my physical location, and how I disclose this information to other people. A remember several conversations in college that went like this:
Me: “Hey, where are you from?”
Them: “New York”
Me: “Oh, me too.. where abouts? I’m from Rochester”
Them: “Oh, I’m down by the city.”
Me: “That’s cool.. Must’ve been fun growing up in the city.”
Them: “Well, technically it’s [New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island, insert other surrounding area here], but it might as well be New York.”
Me: “So, you’re not from New York then, you’re from [insert surrounding area].”
Them: “Technically, yes.. but it’s New York.”
This bugged me. The fact that so many people that did not live in New York, claimed they did, even though they lived in another state, or dozens of miles away from the actual city. A lot of my friends at the time also felt the same way, you have to call a spade a spade. If you live in NJ, you live in NJ — not New York City.
But, this is where my conflict comes in. Residing in Hoboken, NJ, I live less than 4 miles (driving) from Times Square — probably less as the crow flies. But, I do still live in New Jersey — not New York. So, when asked, I tell people that I live in New Jersey. I feel somewhat dirty about that though — less so, than if I said I lived in New York City — but Jersey has just such a bad rap. But, when I come home from work every day, and walking up to my apartment I can see the Empire State Building just over the river, it reminds me that I don’t just live in New Jersey.. It’s New York.
When you say “I live in Hoboken, just across the river from NYC” — it doesn’t really resonanate with them how close you really are. You get the same “Oh, so you’re not in the city” type of response, but.. it’s SO close. I can almost touch it.
Oh well, until Hoboken becomes the 6th Burrough, I live in New Jersey. I guess I’ll have to try to come to grips with that.
