I remember the day I left Utah, and I wasn't particularly thrilled about leaving, but I felt like it was time. I was not at all excited about moving to Southern California, and I secretly swore to myself that it would be very temporary, and I'd come back to Utah as soon as I could. Well turns out I liked living near my sisters more than I thought that I would. The traffic is a never ending nightmare, but living near Disneyland and the beach, isn't such a bad deal, and it only took one winter in Southern California to really sell me on the place. I found myself morphing into one of those people who talks about California as if it is the Celestial Kingdom, and struggles to find nice things to say about Utah. (Except Southern Utah. I've always been fond of Southern Utah.)
Recently however, I've been thinking more about this possibility that I might actually wind up returning to Utah to go to school. I've come to the rather astonishing conclusion that although I love Southern California, and I've learned to fit in much better here than I did originally, I'll never entirely shake the Utah in me. This has become increasingly apparent to me the last few months when I've happened upon a number of other people from Utah County, and I've realized that there's something about them that makes a lot of sense to me. I kind of feel like people who grew up there understand each other better than those that just came to Utah to go to school. Maybe it's in my head, but I really don't think so. I've decided there are a lot of weird things about Utah, but there are a lot of things that I really love, and I had really good reasons for having never wanted to leave in the first place. Although, I don't anticipate ever being excited about going back to the winters there.
On that note, the phone meeting this afternoon went pretty well. The admissions counselor told me not to concern myself with the deadline, and to just get an application submitted asap so they can review things and see if they can accept me back for the summer. He seems to think there's a pretty good chance, but who knows...
2 comments:
there are a lot of great places in the world, but I think a part of your heart always resides close to the place you grew up.
I have been in Utah for 12 years now. Like you, the winter is way too cold for my liking, but I do love the summer, the "traffic", the housing costs, and the boating opportunities (I could go on).
However, everytime I catch a flight into San Jose or San Francisco . . I feel like I am coming home. California always feels like home to me, and probably always will. I relate better to the kids I grew up with, than anyone I have met over the last 12 years. We just "get" each other on so many topics, probably because we shared our childhoods together.
I often say that UTah is where I live, and probably will live. . .but California is home to me. I imagine the same statements are probably true for anyone . .just change the names of the states based on where they are now, and where they grew up.
Interesting post. I was not exactly thrilled to come back to Utah, either, but now that we have been here a little bit I realized I would be OK with being here forever. I don't HAVE to be here forever, but I would be fine with it. Jared, not so much. California is more to him than just the beach, the great weather, and the way of life; it is home to him. So we'll see.
In any case, I hope you do come up here for the summer. Jared and I will be working opposite schedules all summer and it would be great to go do stuff with you. Keep us posted.
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