ASU Life

    Sometimes moving can be the hardest thing in life, letting go of everything familiar and safe and risking it on the unknown frontier. At least that is what I have been told. From the first day I was ever in Arizona, however, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was in the right place. Traveling down through Bryce, Zion, and the Grand Canyon I was given a deep respect for the natural beauty there and all throughout Arizona. When I first reached Phoenix, I was at first awed by its gigantic size and population; my little town in Idaho had only 1500 people in it, compared to Phoenix, it was no larger than some high schools! It all came together for me though, standing on a warm spring night on the University Bridge at ASU watching the cars go by with my best friend. I had never been more sure that the feeling in the back of my mind was what it felt like to be where I belonged, to be at home.

 

    For two years, I lived off campus, biking or busing for twenty minutes from Priest and Baseline to my classes at the ASU campus. Everyday I saw something new to me, whether it was a crazy new fashion statement or simply enjoying the experience of  biking down a beautiful avenue in the dusk, I came to appreciate a far more diverse and rich world than I had ever known. All around me now were people of every race and culture, many of whom were also attending ASU. Such occurrences could never have happened to me in Idaho, and because of them I have became more aware of the world outside of myself.

 

    When I turned 18 in 2004 I exercised my right to vote in the primaries for the first time ever here in Arizona (I am still registered in Maricopa County). In many ways, my coming of age occurred here in ASU, in physical, political, academic, and spiritual ways. I used to think that two years was nothing, just a blink of an eye, but these past two have felt like their were full of a whole lifetime’s worth of experiences. I worked with children in ASU’s Service Learning Program, helping encourage them from an early age to continue their education and pursue their dreams. I volunteered at Paz de Cristo Community Center making food and distributing to those who need it. I helped at the Astronomy Fair in the spring of 2005, where I helped open the eyes of children to the wonders of Mars and space exploration. I have also worked 20 hours a week since the spring of 2005, first as a cook and since last fall, as a tutor. All of these things began the process of making Arizona my home, but perhaps the most influential of all my experiences, the one that really, truly, makes Arizona more than just a great state but also my home, occurred to me last winter (2005), during Christmas break.

 

    I was broke, plain and simple. I had no means of transportation back to Idaho to spend Christmas with my family; none of us could afford the plane ticket to bring me there. I cannot deny that I was disappointed and sad that I was going to have to spend Christmas by myself. I mentioned this in passing to a classmate of mine while studying for a math final, and the next day I was invited by their entire family to spend Christmas with them instead. There are those who celebrate Christmas and those who don’t, but I believe everyone can understand how moved I was that this family would welcome me with open arms as one of their own on Christmas. I joyfully accepted their invitation and was treated to a Christmas as I have never experienced before. I helped knead and bake bread which was given out as gifts to neighbors and friends; I sang Christmas carols with their friends and family; I spent Christmas morning watching my friends and their family open their presents, and before I knew it, there were presents before me and I was no longer just a friend, I was family too.

 

    I have had time, since then, to reflect on my life and those things which truly matter to me most. I love my school, Tempe, Phoenix, and the whole state of Arizona. However, I have realized that without those people who occupy and give life to it all, there is nothing that could cause Arizona to feel like home to me. More than just the family who took me in, though they were just by far the best example, in a thousand little ways there have been men, women, and children here in Arizona that have made my life richer for knowing them. A family with no one in it is not a family, and a city without its inhabitants is just rocks and dust. There are many reasons why I may call Arizona my home, but the reason, which outshines all others in my mind, is that Arizona is my home because the people here have been a part of many of the experiences of my life that now defines who I am and will be. They support and care for me, not as an outsider as I once was, but as one who belongs here, as family, in our home.