soda girl

I was looking in my journal from last year and found this entry. It reminded me again how much I love Soda Springs so I thought I’d share.

November 16, 2008
You don’t realize how much you love something until you leave it...or it leaves you. I never thought I would love Idaho for real. I never expected to miss it or yearn for it.

This weekend I got to come home for the first time, and thought that I couldn’t get there fast enough; now I am watching the gold hills undulate away in the frame of the bus window, realizing that it ended before I knew it. I love this place. Even crossing the border from Utah, I felt as if I could finally relax because I was home. Idaho is my home! I honestly never thought I would want to, or even be able to, identify with it, but now, more than ever, I feel more connected with it than any other place in the world. As we drove through the little streets in Soda, I felt like the place had held its breath for me...like it hadn’t changed a bit and was as relieved to see me as I was to see it.

For years I’ve been telling people that I don’t want to admit to being a child of Idaho; I tried to get away with saying I grew up in Washington or all over, but Dad and Mom wouldn’t let me. I thought it was embarrassing to be from Idaho, the place that everyone assumed was Hickville just by hearing the name of the state. Although, I have come to the fact that I am completely proud of being from Idaho -- I wouldn’t want it any other way. There is so much here; I relish the rolling hills and open fields that radiate with gold when the sun goes down. I love the vast openness of between the sugar-capped mountains and the fact that one can see for miles around an up -- I love that I can see the stars flawlessly, without interference of tall buildings, dirty air, or city lights. I love the purity in its beauty. I think that’s one of the things I love most of all -- that I can see the sky, night or day I don’t care. I love that I can see the sun move across the sky for the whole day.

And as many issues as our town has, it is mine. I feel like it’s so much a part of me -- it’s in my blood, strong and true...and there’s no way I can deny that ever again.