Utah is unique . . .

. . . in more ways than one.


However, one thing about Utah culture that I never realized until now is YOUTH.

First of all, there are children all over the place in Utah. Maybe I don't notice because I don't really know any children here, but it seems like I don't see as many children out and about. I don't see the minivans with the stickers in the back window telling me the names of all the kids in the family (Sarah, you'd love it). Then again, I'm pretty sure I live in an old neighborhood and we are pretty far away from schools and parks. Maybe I'll change my mind in the summer.

Besides the children, it's the younger adults that I don't see. Athens is a college town, just like Provo. It seemed as though almost every business in Provo (or even the Valley itself) employed a large number of twenty-somethings. Here, I go to Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, WalMart or even the grocery store and I mainly see ages 35+ working. Again, maybe I'm not going the right places but I feel like the young people are missing in action.

One very probable theory is that the college scene is a real college scene. Kids here drink, club, get crazy . . . and that just doesn't happen in Provo. Sure, people drink and do drugs and what have you but it's mostly done behind closed doors. There isn't an entire section of Provo devoted to legal partying. Downtown here is lined with bars. When I'm at work on the weekends, I spend most of my time helping girls find outfits to wear out partying.

I'm not condemning anything here. I am saying that being young here and being young in Utah means something entirely different. Because they don't party, kids in Provo do a lot of other things to have fun. They are out in the world, carving in, starting life off. They get jobs, work hard in the community, become part of networks, etc. I think that being in your twenties here means putting off life until you somehow end up with a career or married or you hit your thirties (whichever happens first) - and that's where the young people are: putting off being citizens and hiding on campus.

I just don't see the widespread family-orientation, school zones every few blocks, kids running around in the neighborhoods or the absolute inundation with youth. Maybe I just don't know enough about Georgia yet, but for now it is my opinion that Georgia is old and Utah is young. I'm not sure where to fit.