I have lived in New York for the majority of my life. Hence I have been trained and brainwashed to think that New Jersey is an inferior state reserved for wannabe New Yorkers.

The armpit of America. The toxic wastedump of the northeast. A garbage dump for New York. I have heard, and used, them all.

So imagine my embarrassment when New Jersey became our first home after marriage.

I’m still in denial. I really am. When people ask where I live, I say “the New York area” (which is technically true, seeing that my commute into midtown Manhattan is a lot shorter than that of those living in Brooklyn, Queens, or even uptown Manhattan itself). On the rare occasions when I get carded, I proudly produce my New York driver’s license and turn my nose up on those carrying other states’.

Until now.

A couple of weeks ago, I realized that my New York license would be expiring on my birthday this year: December 7. And since I had no idea how long it would take for me to get a NJ license, or if I would run into any difficulties, I decided to go in a whole month early to make the change.

Today, I traded in my NY driver’s license for a NJ one.

*hides in shame*

The process itself was pretty painless, and there wasn’t even a line at the DMV (oh, excuse me…NJ calls it the MVC, or the “Motor Vehicle Commission”). I almost felt like the state of New Jersey was mocking me for making such a big deal out of it.

Ladies and gents, I present to you my new license:

I had to take a picture with my camera, because the scanner amplified the holograms and you couldn’t see a damn thing.

Compare that to my old license (I made sure to take a scan of my NY license before leaving the house since I knew that they would be taking it away):

Oh, young Jenny…there’s just so much I need to warn you about. And yet, tragically, I cannot.

Compared to the NY license, the NJ one is definitely inferior in quality. NY licenses are coated in some kind of material that allows it to bend and flex in every way without tearing. This pictured license has even been through the washing machine and survived to tell its tale!

In contrast, my NJ license is laminated by a thick sheet of plastic. The image quality is sub-par (can you see how blurry it is in the picture above?) and if you look at the edges, you can see that it is crooked!

Another reason I had been carrying my NY license with pride is that it was issued before the change in design, so I felt speshurr that no one else I knew carried this design. Actually, my learner’s permit had the classic, no-frills blue and white design which I loved. When I obtained my license, they changed it to the pink design above (eww) and now, NY issues these monstrosities (double eww):

The design keeps getting worse and worse, no?

Another thing I should mention is that when I was filling out my forms, they asked for my weight…but as you can see it isn’t included in the license. If memory serves me right, NY does not ask for your weight at all during the process.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that California licenses include your weight. I wonder how many people fib on that section!

Do you like your state’s driver’s license design? Which state do you think has the best license? The worst?