Connected

For the past couple of weeks I have been biking the 8 miles from my apartment to work. I have had to get up a little bit earlier and pack the stuff I will need for the next day the night before. I have had to eat wiser during the day because a heavy lunch sits like a stone on the ride home. I have been snowed on, rained on, nearly hit by several kamikaze UTA busses, and I almost run over one homeless man sleeping in the bike lane.

I have gained several things from this new experience. I have more energy at work, and sleep better at night,. I have really enjoyed the smug feeling of being better than other people because I am part of the solution as opposed to those of you who are part of the problem.

More than that I have enjoyed feeling connected to my new home. I have been living in Salt Lake for over a year now, and it has never felt real. When I was in DC for under a year I felt at home. I felt like I was a part of that city. I went to events, met new people there, felt like I belonged there. I never felt “at home” while I was on my mission in Oakland, California, because as much as I strived to, its hard to feel a part of place when you are living with a 9:30 curfew, no dating, no going out, and a having to stand behind the car to back up (what city wants a geek like that anyway?). A mission was a different experience, and not one that can easily compare to living in a new place as part of normal society.

I have done many of the same things in Salt Lake that I did in DC, with out the same results. I have been to museums, attended the Utah Symphony, gone to plays, made new friends, and I have even become an avid skier. All of these did not ever make me feel like I knew Salt Lake or that I was a part of the Wasatch Front Tapestry. I am from St George. I am a Southern Utahan who likes his rocks red, and his homes to be all white stucco. That changed when commuted to bike.

When I started biking I was no longer trapped in my car as just another UDOT stat on I-80 West Bound. I was on the ground level of the city. I rode through the downtown with its high rise office buildings. I biked down South Temple past my future residence, the Governor’s Mansion. I pedal past Temple Square and the Capitol Building. I also see my fellow Salt City residents sleeping on sidewalks, or waiting for a Bus or Trax train to stop. They are no longer moving pictures framed by a car window, they are all real now.

I think one of the reasons I felt so connected to Washington DC in such a short time is I have always wanted to be there, but I also walked to work every morning from my studio on Constitution to my office in the Longworth Building on Independence. I had to bump into my fellow interns, along with reporters, representatives, and various office staff. I had to feel connected because I was. Riding my bike to work has done the same: it has connected me to my home of Salt Lake.