Here We Have Idaho

At the beginning of August, I moved back to Rexburg, in the Snake River Valley of Idaho, the land of my maternal roots. My family moved from the Salt Lake area to Idaho Falls when I was 16; I stayed here in southeast Idaho until I was 28, when I moved to Pullman, Washington to begin graduate study. From there I moved first to Saint George, Utah, and then to Mesa, Arizona for a PhD at Arizona State. If all goes as planned, I will soon buy a home here in Rexburg, effectively planting myself for the long term.

Photo: Idaho border signage. CC BY-SA 2.0

I loved living in the Phoenix metro area. I loved all the wonderful friends I made there, the amazing range of culinary options at both restaurants and grocery stores, the plentiful opportunities to enjoy the visual and performing arts, and the great roads (even with the not-so-great drivers). But I am really enjoying the beautiful clear skies (especially at night when I can see so many more stars), the cooler weather, the open fields and greener hills, and the total lack of anything that can reasonably be called traffic (local opinions notwithstanding). A friend recently asked me how big Rexburg is, so I did a bit of research and found the results rather amusing.

• The state of Idaho is home to 1.6 million people; that's about half as many people as live in the Phoenix Metro area, where I just moved from. 
• Rexburg has a population of roughly 30,000 people. This is about 20,000 fewer people than the student population of Arizona State University's Tempe campus, where I just spent the last five years as a student and faculty member. 
• Idaho Falls, where I spent my teens and early adulthood, is about the same size as ASU Tempe. 
• In the Winter 2015 semester (what would be called Spring semester at other schools), BYU-Idaho had a total on-campus enrollment of nearly 17,000 students--for comparison, my former employer, ASU Writing Programs, served over 11,000 students in Fall 2014. 
• Bonus climate comparison: The hottest day on record in Rexburg was 102 degrees, in June 1988. That's considered pleasant spring weather in Mesa, where 120+ degree temperatures are not uncommon throughout the summer, and summer nights rarely dip below 80--which is a normal high temperature for Rexburg summers. Winters are another story. Come January or February, I will probably have to endure more than one -20 day. 

Although I will miss the rich cultural affordances of living in a major metro area, I am still a small-town girl, and I relish the thought of teaching at a smaller university. Although I will miss Arizona's mild winters, I am enjoying being able to spend summer afternoons outside again. Above all, I'm enjoying being closer to my family.

Photo: Me with several nieces and nephews at Pineview Reservoir last week, taken by Jared Robinson.
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