To Chose or Not to Chose?

I have recently discovered that sometimes there are certain aspects of your life that you have less control over than you might like. I could say this about how I came to live in “Happy Valley” and joined the ranks of those attending Utah Valley University. When I was 18 and fresh out of high school I didn’t really care much about where I was going or what I was going to do when I got there so I followed some friends of mine up to Logan Utah and enrolled at Utah State. At the end of my two-year stint I left Logan with a collective knowledge that would be less likely to help me in the working world and more likely to benefit me in any local bar. I was leery to move back to my parent’s house in Magna but I was grateful for the fact that I would no longer have to wake up to the smell of cow dung and sheep urine, a typical aroma floating around USU’s campus in the morning. I quickly got in the groove of spending my free time with fair-weather friends at my favorite bars; I also very quickly forgot the values and morals I was raised with. The things that I learned while growing up in an LDS family were no longer affecting my decisions. As my social life was expanding I was losing the person that I knew I was. The lifestyle that I had grown accustomed to for the last 7 years flipped upside down on its self. I was left staring a huge fork in the path that would be my life; I just didn’t know which way to turn.
My first experience with college life was great; I did everything that any upstanding good Mormon girl would do after leaving the confines of her religious nest. I discovered and was educated in Kings cup, I Have Never, and Bull Shit 101, some of the best drinking games around. The entire two years I spent up at USU were occupied with staying up too late, sleeping through the majority of my classes, and hanging out with the ever so upstanding group of gentlemen otherwise known as Frat Guys. It was these wonderful future leaders of our society that introduced me to the magic of social lubrication. The classes that I did manage to attend were always my theater courses, this was partly because they were enjoyable and partly because the group of friends I made in those classes were some of the best partiers I had come across. Occasionally I went to a Biology or Geology class, that consequently I failed; however if there were any classes on drinking I would’ve most definitely received an A++. While attending Utah State everything I did was about partying and having a good time and trying to figure out who I really was outside of parental control, unfortunately I went about it the wrong way.
Two years later and I was moving back to my parents home in Magna. I quickly enrolled at Salt Lake Community College to appease my parents and began hitting up my favorite watering holes with my drinkin’ buddies. I had left Utah State but I had brought back my party attitude and desire for always having a good time. Tensions grew between my parents and I due to the difference in opinion about the way I was living. I moved into my own apartment in the heart of down town Salt Lake where everything I could possibly want was within either walking distance or a quick scooter ride. I had a great job, plenty of disposable income and a plethora of friends who were merely a quick text message away and always willing to join me at the Tavernacle, Piper Down, Gracies, or any other over priced down town bar. I was living a great life, enjoying being young and carefree, and not having any real responsibility or at least I thought I was. A down turn in the economy and one lay off due to budget cuts later and I no longer had disposable income or any income for that matter. I was forced to make a decision about my future and quick. Going back to school was the best option. I knew I needed a better education if I wanted to have a better chance at financial security later in life so I applied to the University of Utah. My horrible grades from Utah State and the few classes that I had taken at SLCC were no where near what they needed to be to get into the U. Fortunately for me UVU was open enrollment and was accepting pretty much every one and their dog.
Utah Valley University wasn’t my first choice of school. Hell it wasn’t even my second or 3rd. UVU was probably second to last on my list of University’s I wanted to attend for the remainder of my academic career, the last being BYU. But here I am part of the crowd, a Wolverine attending UVU in the great Happy Valley where everyone wears their religion like a status symbol instead of internalizing it and making it personal. Being raised a Mormon outside of Utah by parents who didn’t join the church until they were adults, caused me to have a different outlook on my religion. My family and I enjoy the fact that we’re not like typical “Utah Mormons”, those who follow the culture and not the spirit of the religion. Moving down to Orem and being immersed in and surrounded by everything Mormon, I couldn’t help but begin to thaw. My spirit, and the person I was slowly started to shine through once again after the alcohol from the last shot had long since left my body. I discovered that the people I considered my friends up in Salt Lake didn’t care to keep in contact with me after I moved, it was as if I had never been a part of their lives. I have since taken the trash out so to speak and I rid my life of people who don’t truly care about me. I’m now surrounded with an amazing core group of friends who genuinely care about my well-being. Whether I’m a good upstanding member of their congregation or if I let them see that I’m human and prone to making very dumb mistakes it doesn’t matter to them. They love me regardless and I feel that the path I’ve taken in the proverbial fork in my life has led me to a good place. I feel at peace now with who I am and the way I am living my life more than I ever have. At first I lived in Orem Utah because the only University that I could afford and would accept me was UVU. Now I live in Orem because I feel like I was guided here and at this moment in my life it’s where I’m supposed to be.