What is it like to live in New Jersey?

[JerseyDevil]

I was looking through the webstats and someone searched on the phrase "What is it like to live in New Jersey?" I thought this was a very interesting question and something that would make a good thread. I'm going to have to think about this in depth, but I would be interested in what others have to say about this.

Having said that - I will repeat - I have been to 40 states and lived in 6 of them. I knew the moment I moved out of NJ that I needed to get back. NJ is so underappriated by people who live here - it's just taken for granted. NJ has shortcomings like any state does (high property taxes, high real estate prices, lack of self pride, disfunctional government, traffic, etc) - but without a sense of pride, we can not combat those shortcomings. But as for what it's like to lie here, well that's a more complicated question I think.

[BlueIrishEyes]

Living in New Jersey is being 30 minutes from anywhere in the middle of nowhere.
It is having good education, a vast array of people from diverse backgrounds, it is having the shore and mountains within a few hours, it is unbridled beauty as the Ken Lockwood Gorge and Teetertown Ravine. New Jersey means the best veggies in the world from July through September, replaced by the best apples in the US.
It is a place defined by exits on the Parkway and Turnpike, but also a country drive through the Delaware Water Gap only a few miles down the road.
New Jersey has culture withing the perimeters and access to NYC and Philly within a moment.
New Jersey is growing and learning and as long as we continue to improve we remain a great state.

It is good to be home.