move out of New Jersey

I moved here because my Marine got out of active duty, and this is where he’s from. But he decided to go back in, and I’m really hoping we can go elsewhere. I’m from a very small town in Nevada. I’m used to rural, quiet, peaceful areas, and this urban clusterfuck is just horrible. The government is also ridiculous here, controlling, bloating, and over-taxing. No offense to people who like NJ, but it’s just not for me.

I didn’t think I would ever want to do this but several irksome things about this state have brought me closer and closer to considering moving to another state:

1. High taxes: The state sales tax is now up to 7% and on top of that, we have to pay state income taxes too?

2. Overpriced real estate: Seriously, houses are half a million dollars up here in Northern NJ. I can’t imagine it would ever be worth buying a house here when you could get the same house for a fraction of that amount further away from the coast.

3. Annoying gas station attendants: New Jersey is one of only two states where self-serve gas is prohibited by law. That would be okay except that I have run into some of the rudest, meanest gas station attendants ever. I’ve been cussed out by some of them for no good reason. I’ve also had a number of them refuse to give me change back, saying that it was a tip for pumping gas. I’ve even had one outright ask for an extra dollar even though he didn’t clean my windshield or check the engine oil.

4. Overcrowding: Don’t even try to go anywhere on a weekday evening. There are traffic delays on the Garden State Parkway every evening now and those traffic delays only get worse in bad weather.

5. Xenophobia: Just because I look Asian, so many people, especially gas station attendants (don’t get me started again), want to know exactly which country I come from and then proceed to give me inferior service just because I’m not from around here, even though I’ve already been here longer than some of them.

The big problem is where to move to. I like Central Pennsylvania in some ways, although I haven’t made enough trips there yet to decide. Real estate there is cheap. I worry that Pennsylvania suffers from some of the same problems that New Jersey does. They haven’t raised taxes yet, but rest assured, given the state budget, they’ll be forced to do so eventually. Oregon also has no self-serve gas so I expect similar encounters with gas station attendants there, but I really have no experience on that coast.

I moved here for school but within 3 months of going to school, I realized photography wasn’t what I wanted to be doing and that’s why I am stuck here. But I really don’t know how anyone who has ever lived in this state could like it. I HATE New Jersey. Maybe somewhere is something good about it, but it’s definitely not here in South Jersey.