Sometimes I think that God will place and replace obstacles in your life until you are strong enough to overcome them.
When my family first moved to Utah, we rented a place in Alpine. It was probably the hardest time (in my opinion) in my family's life. My brother and I called it "Hell-pine". I think a lot of it stems from the bitterness and immaturity I had about moving from, all my friends, my high school, my life, and my, my, my Arizona (I was a very self centered teenager). Then coming to this richy "my daddy makes more money then yours does"(I'm not kidding, I heard arguments over this all the time at school), small town where everyone grew up together and wasn't very fond of letting outsiders in, which is what we were, outsiders. In any case Alpine was a hard time for me and when we moved after 7 months of trying to make it work, I swore that I would never NEVER come back. I wanted nothing to do with anything south of point of the mountain. In the next 8 years I could count on two hands the amount of times that I ever stepped into Utah County again.
Then we moved back from Michigan and I had to find a new job, and the one I wanted was in Highland, which is right next to Alpine. As lame as it sounds I almost thought about not taking the job for the sole fact that it was "Hell-pine" territory. Now after almost 10 years, Jason and I have moved back, to guess where... Alpine. I never thought I'd see the day. Jason thought it was really weird that I couldn't remember where my old house was or how to get to certain places. I seriously blocked that time of my life from my memory for a long time. Now we even attend church at the same old ward building, and the other sunday on our way to church we drove past where I used to live, by accident. It did kind of make me queasy inside having flashbacks to those countless nights crying in my room and all those days wandering the halls during lunch because I didn't have friends to eat with.
Again, I think God knows what he is doing, and as lame as it sounds I need to face my 15 year old in secure self and realize that home is where you make it. Who knows how long we will really be here for, but being bitter didn't get me anywhere last time, so here's to our new home, and new adventure, and new friends that I am looking forward to meeting!
