Mommy asked that Hannah and I, after having visited Texas for the first time, write a blogpost on our experience. Since I've been back a few of my residents have asked how I liked Texas, and I have told them all that I absolutely LOVED it! Though I love the east and midwest with their rolling mountains, plentiful forests, lakes, wildlife and rain, this was one of the few experiences I have had in the south that I am old enough to remember and account.
For me, the word that best describes my experience with Texas is rather strange, but I came up with the word eternal, or maybe immortal would be a better description because when I think of Texas, I think - never ending. One of the aspects I loved most about Texas is it seems they have an attitude of - If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Meaning if they have something that works, that they enjoy, they aren't gonna ever change anything about that till it becomes obsolete. This means their food, architecture, way of dressing even, has a very definite theme, and isn't much different from when Mommy was a kid or beyond that. Though this leads to the continuation of racism and constant use of fossil fuels in the south, it also leads to the conservative values of most texans (coming with it's good and bad points.) But seeing how Mommy's neighborhoods hadn't changed a bit since she'd last seen them, and seeing how old things weren't considered bad or needing to be changed, was refreshing for me. One of my biggest pet peeves about BYU is that they don't seem to care about a physical heritage, well all of Utah for that matter. They build new things, leaving the old to be buried in the ground or shipped off to fill yet another landfill/waste site nearby. Instead of using what they've been given, they always want the "new cool thing" on the shelf, down the street and straight off the assembly line.
Take the Gage Hotel for example - originally erected in 1927, it has stayed the same, beautiful rustic place it was built to be. Or just driving around big bend, and Texas in general, you wouldn't be surprised in the least if I cowboy rounded the corner on a horse. Even when we visited the pictographs carved into the rocks of our hike like 6000 years ago, it felt like they had just been carved. Texas just seems timeless. They use what they've got and it creates this unique beauty in being happy with what you've been given, and not just swiping out the old in pursuit of something new. It feels like Texas will always be there, with the same time tested tasty food, beautiful skies and endless landscapes :)
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