About a year ago my loving uncle pointed out to me that I have an uncalled for hatred of Southern Utah. I thought about it for a minute and agreed with him. I lived in S. UT for 7 years and for the most part have very negative thoughts and feelings about it. Now, it really wasn't all that bad. I do have some great memories with some great people but all in all, it is definitely not my favorite place in the world. As a result I have not been back in 7 years and Travis has never met any of my dad's family that lives there.
Over the past few months I have been thinking about my issues with S. UT and have decided that the town itself really isn't so bad and I really don't have that many terrible memories. So when my uncle invited us to go to St. George for spring break I wasn't repulsed by the idea and was more intrigued. I was curious to see how much things had grown and changed and thought it would be nice to see some family and friends. So I agreed to go. Oh, and did I mention that my mom was going to be there visiting my brother! (Travis needed to stay home and recover from his crazy month.)
So here I am in St. George and I can't believe, well, I can, how much things have changed. It's not just a backwoods little city. They have just about every major chain store and restaurant that you would find in any big city. And there are way more houses here than there were 7+ year ago. In a way it makes me sad. I feel like St George has lost is quaintess. I have to say the same for Hurricane. (I went to middle school there and 2.5 years of high school.) It's not just little old Hurricane. :( I think I now understand how Travis feels about how Kuna has changed for the last 15 years.
In some ways it's good to be "home" (although I will never claim to be from Ut.). It was mostly familiar and there were many fun times had. :) It was good to see my aunts and uncle. I still don't like the red dirt. I still have to go visit my old house. Well, it's my grandma's house, but it's where I lived for 7 years. I'm nervous about walking through the front door. My grandma had a hard time keeping it clean the last few years of her life and she had pets that lived inside. But, I'm told that my aunts have worked hard at getting the place cleaned up.
I've never been good at expressing my feelings in writing. I'm good at telling facts, but I have a hard time opening up. It's good to be here and there are definitely things that I miss about living here. There are people that I miss and I sometimes wish that I could go back to my crazy days as a high school student. Those were some fun times. :) But alas, I'm all grown up and will just have to make new memories and share the old ones with my family and friends so I don't forget them.
