Dorothy in New Jersey

We all know about that pretty young girl with those infamous pigtails. She clicked her heels three times and said, "there's no place like home, there's place like home," and suddenly she awakens and finds out it was all a very multicolored dream. Dorothy is back home in her safe grey life. And we all clap and cry about the fact that Dorothy is safe and sound in her little world.

What the movie doesn't show is that nothing changed. Our little farm girl still has that awful neighbor that threatens the life of Toto, she still has to muck out the stalls, and Auntie Em's overbearing presence isn't leaving any time soon.

For the past four years I have lived in my own Oz, but unfortunately my time over the rainbow has come to an end. My personal Oz is called Washington, D.C. and until recently I had been going to college there. Then three weeks ago I graduated and since I didn't get any jobs offers before I left, I had to move back in with my parents. So I have moved back to, you guessed it, New Jersey.

Dorothy and I may not be in exactly the same situation (my feet are too tiny to pull off those fabulous heels) but it seems pretty close to me. I am stuck in this grey world that cocoons me and at the same time suffocates me. When I look around my room it makes me shudder to see how nothing has changed. I mean nothing at all. The ballerina wallpaper that was put up when I was five and first moved in, is still on the walls.

I wasn't born a city girl, but the past four years have certainly turned me into one. I like public transportation, museums, and the multitude of restaurants that a city offers. In my hometown you have the two M's: mall or movies.

This begs the question, or city people born or raised? Did Dorothy make a horrible mistake by waking up? I mean the girl vanquished a witch, shouldn't she have had a little more time to celebrate before going back to the pigs? Is Dorothy kidding herself when she wishes herself home? Could she ever be happy again after she has seen what it is like over the rainbow?

I guess I am just one Dorothy that woke up and saw the grey ceiling.

Dorothy of N.J.