Once upon a time I lived in South Jordan, Utah.
We went sledding on Glenmoor golf course and in the gully during the winter; we played night games every night on the greenbelt in the summer. I went to a middle school that was only six years old (I guess Jordan School District had money back then), there was a Wendy's three minutes from my house, and also, daisies bloomed year-round.
I didn't even know where Taylorsville was. It was a charmed life.
Then I found out that my family was moving ... to Roosevelt. For this eighth-grade girl, the news was shattering. I had spent seven years working to make and keep my circle of friends (a post for another day!), and now I had to start ALL OVER. In a town that no one had even heard of.
If you didn't know, Utah is simultaneously one of the most "urban" and least densely populated states in the nation. This means that anyone not living along the Wasatch Front is basically living in OUTER DARKNESS. Worse than the mission field. We were moving to Outer Darkness.
As I tried to explain to my fellow SJ-ers where "Roosevelt, UTAH" was, pictures formed in my mind. Pictures of tiny church groups with no piano players. A 20-piece school band. (It WAS that small.) School colors: black and yellow. No Wasatch Mountains or Copperton Park or Ensign Peak. No mall!
Many things didn't occur to me back then, of course, but have surfaced over the years since. For example, did you know that big mountains get in the way of spectacular sunrises? And that in some places, you can't get a decent shake after 9:00 at night?
(Sorry, have I mentioned that before?)
For better or for worse, my pre-conceived notions were waaaay off.
For nine years now, I have come home to a town that's "On the way to Vernal."
What - you don't know where Vernal is?
Where do YOU live, a bubble?
I spent part of my childhood in a tiny town in California (it's so overgrown now that I don't even recognize it...) and we played "night games" (we actually called it that!) in the cul de sac! It's sad that nowadays there aren't more places where it's just simpler.
ReplyDeleteEven being a little bit older than 8th grade :) I reacted the same way to moving here! The shake thing is still annoying, but we actually quite love it here now. (Blake refuses to bring his friends home though, and we never see him on holidays since there is nothing to do there and he can find places to go that are more fun, so sad.)
ReplyDeleteAwwww...I remember when we found out you were moving. Tragic. And then we all crimped our hair for the last day of 8th grade. :-)
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