Story.

I barely see my roommates here, but the more I talk with them the more I like them. Three of us had an interesting conversation on the couch last night before the final NBA Finals game (Game 7; Boston lost, so I'm sure much of this city mourns today, but I feel like the game could have taken place in Oklahoma for all the hype I see at my insulated research job). I live with a 23-year-old Air Force Academy grad who just finished her master's degree at Harvard and owes ten years to the armed forces as a fighter pilot (she starts training next May); a smiley, crazy double-master's degree girl headed to England for her PhD in language computing; a dark-haired Texan undergraduate completing an internship in graphic design; and an extremely thin environmental advocate who spends her days and nights as a militant field manager campaigning to save Massachusetts' trees. Among us, we speak French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic, and German.

Something I've found interesting here, much to my smug surprise, is that trashing your college town is not unique to Provo students. I've put up with out-of-staters moaning about the failings of my city for years and it never fails to annoy me, mostly because I find the vast majority of students who complain about Utah to be narrow-minded and even more narrowly traveled. I've been surprised to observe the same phenomenon here in Boston. People put down the weather, the lack of *insert whatever item your town has and this one doesn't*, and the culture the same way they do in my home city. The funny thing about the people who participate in such trashing is that they're always confident it's a singular phenomenon. To them, whatever place they're in drains the dregs of all the earth, so whyyy are they stuck here? Because Indiana/New Hampshire/Texas/Colorado/or the trump card, California, is soooo much better. I've met people from tiny rural towns in Northern California almost as far away from the fabled "bounce" as I am who milk their shaky claim to the golden state for all it's worth. It's ridiculous. So I've been almost happy to hear people whine, "I haaaate Boston!" I feel justified for a lifetime of defending my own city to small-minded losers. I love Boston, Jerusalem, Cambridge (England), Stockton, Lansing, and all the other places I've lived for their own reasons. And I love Provo, too.