Utah

So I've been here in Salt Lake City for 2 and a half years now. And I still feel this deep sense of glee and peace about that. There's just so much to do here: Hiking, camping, and friending! Haha. I miss snowboarding, but don't feel sorry for me. ;) I was just out for a Sunday walk and the mountains continue to make me grin as I stare. This is the first spring where I've lived this close to them since coming here, and I never noticed how much red rock there is along the Wasatch front. I wonder if that has to do with all of the green that exploded over the slopes, because the contrast makes the red rocks pop. Hmm. Well, it's lovely. (We've had a great amount of rain this past month. It rained like 23 out of 29 days.)

I miss grandma and grandpa. While I was walking the memories of our trips to southern Utah came back. I actually think alot about those times since moving here. I'm so grateful for the experience that they gave Jude and I. Someday they'll know just how good it was for us to get to leave San Diego and be out in such wild and beautiful country. Oh, how it liberated me. I could just feel the shackles slip away when we'd make that trip. If that sounds dramatic, it should. Middle school was, so far, one of the most trying times of my entire life.

We lived in a ghetto poor part of San Diego. Yes, that's a thing. (Lot's of places like that in SD.) A drug/prostitution ring was busted, in the apartments upstairs from ours. Nice. I still remember men with gold teeth hitting on me while I played in the dirt. But that wasn't really what was so hard. That peripheral stuff didn't quite matter as much. It was school that was so hard. I remember not being able to walk down the street and swing my arms with abandon. To do so would send a message that I was comfortable with myself, and that I wasn't afraid. Other's were always there, ready to beat you down, if you didn't show submission or make yourself not stick out in any way. I consistently felt in fear of being beaten up. You couldn't look people in the eye, because to do so would be a challenge and you'd get beat. Yeah, it was awful and I could go on and on.

So hooray for beautiful places, and people that truly love you, is really what I have to say.