I, unlike most people, am from the South. I'm from southeast Texas, an area with a ton of Mexicas. Believe me, border jokes are viral where I'm from. It's hard to get any more South without leaving the United States. My point is, I am quite different of a student here at BYU. The admission office clams they try to have a lot of student diversity here at BYU. I hardly believe that, with the most abundant student group being 83% white people, most of which live within a couple hours driving distance from Provo. Being from Texas, it's harder for me to relate to a lot of the people around me. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not have early morning seminary and to go to a High School where being a church member is considered normal. It was hardly that way where I'm from, in fact, quite the opposite. But I love where I'm from. Though most people aren't actual church members, Texas has a very Christian theme to it. Most nearly everyone there is either some form of Christian, or claims to be an Atheist but still say they believe in a God. It makes for some hilarious conversations.
Texas may not have mountains, but I love being near the ocean growing up. I still remember lots of great family and youth activities going to the beach, like how one of my older brothers went to every church activity including beach activities, even though he hates sand. And speaking of sand, the ground where I'm from is so much more earthquake safe than anywhere here in Utah. There's a record sized earthquake building up below the mountains near BYU that is way overdue for an eruption. My Mom has pointed out the fault line to it, it literally goes through a neighborhood up on the base of the mountains. Also, speaking of whats in the ground, I find it very different and was initially quite intrigued to go into a basement. Those aren't a thing in southern Texas. My home is at 20 ft - 20 ft from sea level. If you dug a basement, it would be in the water table. That's another thing: nobody here knows what the water table is! It's simple: the level in the ground at which local water exists (so 0 ft on the water table would be at the surface of a lake for example, and digging down to that level would cause you to hit water, quite nice for a well.) But setting that all aside, my parents didn't actually go to BYU for most of their schooling.
My Dad joined the church at age 19 and my Mom only went to a couple of semesters at BYU, instead working with my Dad through college at the University of Houston, who never went to BYU at all. Somehow, all of my older siblings ended up attending BYU in some form, and as a result I went as well. It's a good place. Being surrounded by church members, from my experience, is weird... especially when it comes to things like dating, nobody knows what they're even doing. I guess that's a side effect of growing up being told to avoid or support certain behaviors. People have no idea what they're doing from my observation. I won't go on in that topic.
I just find it interesting that me and all of my siblings are choosing to go to BYU, yet my parents never set this example for us. It's been a fun experience.
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