An Editor’s Journey to the GoOutJersey Launch Party
Author’s Note: On Friday, April 20th, GoOutJersey.com celebrated its official launch with a party at Rogo’s in Hoboken. As Assistant Editor of the site, I was invited. The party was a gathering of staff, contributors, and friends of the site. We chose Rogo’s because it was a spot that represents what the site is about — it’s for real Jerseyites (present company excluded), and it’s cheap.
The following is a very approximate timeline of my evening…
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As a newly-married person trying to figure out where I’m going to —ugh— “nest” permanently, I often find myself arguing with my husband about the kind of town we’d choose. This might not be unusual —newlyweds bickering? No!— it was rather unexpected for us. We had spent the last several years living in NYC and were in-synch about the kind of area we wanted to live: ethnically- and culturally-diverse; considerable nightlife (the kind where you’re grateful there are people out on the street at 3AM as you walk home); good public transportation; restaurants; a general liveliness and “neighborhoodness” without the persnickety, pesky neighbors — basically, a city.
I’m a suburb-born, Brooklyn-bred gal, and he’s a Third World-city-born, NYC-bred guy so, of course, we agree on… nothing.
Initially, we both had wanted to buy in NYC (Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx), but after you’ve spent 10 years living over such people as a violent-sex-crazed couple (even their dogs would howl out of concern), a “clothes-designer for strippers”, and sundry drug dealers, arsonists and snide-snippy-scowling elderly, you appreciate the extra padding between neighbors a house with a yard can provide. And since I’d rather shoot myself in a treasured artery than live in Staten or Long Island, never mind Upstate, Jersey here we are! But where in this diverse state of garden?
Imagine my horror when my husband told me his ideal neighborhood is none other than the small, homogeneous, movie-theater-less hometown I spent years trying to escape. And where would I like to be?
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This is a brief post to say goodbye to a woman who used to work with some of us (not on this website), and to send our deepest condolences to her family and friends.
Julia Campbell - R.I.P.
You didn’t deserve this.
I never worked side-by-side with you, and it took me seeing your face on the news websites before your name rang with familiarity. But the recognition of your smile was instantaneous. I had no idea you had joined the Peace Corps and decided to do so much more with your life than pushing pen to paper. I admire that. You decided to give so much and, for that, your death weighs so heavily. When we heard you were missing, we were so hopeful that maybe, maybe, you were “just kidnapped” and would return to your friends soon. For our line of work, I guess we should have known better.
A passionate, funny woman who clearly had a huge heart and who was supposed to return home soon; instead, left in a shallow grave so many miles away. It completely breaks my heart. A woman should be able to travel anywhere in the world safely — especially when she’s devoting herself to helping its people.
A life lived with purpose, bettering the lives of people around the world, creates a vacuum when it’s gone, and the pain of it reaches beyond those closest to you. A lot of people talk about changing the world or doing something “more” with their lives — you did that and probably without realizing the impact you’d have. I don’t know the proper way to make a tribute to you but I think it’ll be found through people being inspired by your example and following your lead.
Read Julia’s own words about her time in the Philippines here. More about her here and here.
A friend and fellow volunteer writes about her here.
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