06
Happy Valley
Posted by Cory
Everywhere I go, I hear people complaining about Utah. Utah is too cold, Utah is too conservative, nothing is open on Sunday lol, Utah is too desert-like, Utah is too hot, Utah is too ugly, Utah is full of hypocrites, Utah this and Utah that. To which, I always curiously wonder, “If you don’t like Utah… why don’t you move? And if you don’t want to move… why not find some things that you really like about your life here?” I have to speak carefully though for two reasons: 1-because most of the people I get to hear regularly complain are my friends and I don’t want them to leave lol, and 2-because I have to admit that there was a time in my own life when I joined in on the bash-Utah bandwagon…. but then I got to see the world and was able to come home appreciating so many things about Utah that I just never saw before. If you need some help recognizing the positives, here are a couple things I’ve learned:
1- Our state is so clean!!!! lol I know this seems like an odd one but after visiting so many big cities that are absolutely filthy, it is so refreshing to come home to clean mountain air and tidy streets and sidewalks. (yes, those big cities have lots of other wonderful things about them but this list is not talking about how great those places are, it is about how great Utah is. 
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2- The people here are so genuinely nice. For the most part, we have a larger majority of people (than anywhere that I have been so far) who genuinely care about complete strangers and often look for opportunities to help each other out without ever being asked. This is something in and of itself that is so amazing to watch. 
3- Our winters are absolutely beautiful and not even a tenth as cold as some places back east we have visited. I have always loved our snow but got easily annoyed at the cold… however now that I have endured places where the cold actually pierces your very core (like stabbing knives) and gives you INSTANT migranes and earaches, regardless of how warmly you are dressed, I have a little better perspective and am now grateful that we have mild winters.
4- The people here (and everywhere else for that matter) are not hypocrites, they are human. This one took me a very long time to realize. I would watch mothers bear their testimonies at church about how much they loved their kids and then they would go sit down and through clenched jaws and gritted teeth, growl warnings and consequences if they didn’t sit down and shut up. I spent years being bothered at the number of “hypocrites” I encountered regularly. Then one day it smacked me right upside the head, for no particular reason: they are not hypocrites! They are human beings (with faults) who genuinely believe in a certain way of living and acting…. try hard to actually do those things on a daily basis…. and sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don’t. But they don’t give up. If you ask me, that is something to be applauded not criticized. And at the same time that this epiphany came, another one came: There is not an “I” and a “they”. We are all in the same boat. We are all human. We all have faults. We all try to do what we think is right and sometimes we nail it and sometimes we miss by a long shot… But every day is a chance to start over. We should be helping each other by being supportive and not critical. I also realized that I don’t want people judging me that closely lol, so I stopped judging everyone else. What goes around, comes around. I am much more compassionate now lol.
5- We have spectacular mountains. Sure they aren’t quite as impressive as some… but we have them! And they are so beautiful. Just a 15 minute drive, run, or bike ride up the canyon is guaranteed to cure any feelings of irritation. There are cities full of high rise apartments where you can reach out through a window and touch the next building and continue this experience for miles and miles. Where the only “play area” is a 15×15 foot patch of grass in a designated area, squished down in between 14-story slabs of concrete. To be able to get out in the open and explore and have picnics, barbecues, go on hikes, take walks, have high points to go paragliding off of, rivers to lazily float down, and lakes to dive into, is a blessing that you just can’t imagine unless you’ve been elsewhere.
Something I’ve noticed: Often times when people are complaining about Utah, it is because they are comparing it to another place. Comparing people or places is never a good idea because one or the other will always fall short. Instead I’ve learned to recognize the positives that Utah has to offer without comparing it to anything. Just learning to admire it’s own kind of beauty and realizing what it has to offer without making it regularly fall short of paradise. This alone helped me reach a very “zen” place about this great state lol and now I am just overflowing with positive things to say about it. Love these pictures? Check them out at http://www.willieholdman.com . Have more great things to add to this list of reasons Utah is fabulous? Let’s hear ‘em!
