Grateful for Aggie Village

I live in Aggie Village, a tiny student apartment on campus.  My friends complain, I've complained about them and we make fun of them but really I love my apartment mostly because it is mine, my home and I really am grateful to be here.

Aggie Village isn't perfect but it is the longest I've lived in one place for nearly 20 years, it's the most comfortable I've felt in a home in 13 years, the most love I've felt in a ward in 8 years, and I've made the best friends here that I've had ever.

I can't even describe to you the nastiness of the apartment I lived in before AV when I first moved to Logan.  And before that I lived with my all too gracious Aunt and Uncle in Draper and though I loved it there I over stayed my welcome and it never really was home.  Before that was the last time I lived with my mom.  She and I and my brother and sister lived in my grandparent's basement.  The four of us shared a 1/2 bathroom smaller than the one here in AV.  The washer and dryer set up here might not be ideal but there our washer and dryer were in my mom's small bedroom.  We did have a nice big laundry room in one place that we lived but my brother slept in there on a cot, he didn't have a room.  I've lived with concrete walls before too, at least these ones don't have mold on them.  And the floors at AV do bother me but it's better than 30 year old green shag carpet.  The AV kitchens are small, but I've had a hallway kitchen before were we couldn't open the refrigerator and oven at the same time.  And I've lived without a dishwasher before.  I hate parking my car outside but my family has only had a garage we could actually park our car in for 3 out of the last 20 years.  AV may be small but it is clean, the appliances are new, and the neighborhood is safe, all things I've learned the value of.

I am grateful for a big porch where I can enjoy the sun, I'm grateful that I have cable and Internet, I'm grateful I have a place to take a bubble bath, I'm grateful I can hang pictures on my walls (I grew up in apts were we couldn't do that), I'm grateful I have a place to store my own food, I'm grateful I have food, I'm grateful that I have a warm bed, and that my baby has a safe roof over her head. 

We are hoping to move this summer but only because my sister is coming to live with us when she gets off her mission (she has no where else to go, my mom doesn't have a home and my dad's is too small).  If we get into the place we are hoping for it will be the first time in my life that I will have a garage, a laundry room,  a kitchen, a dishwasher, air conditioning, an enclosed backyard, more than one bathroom, and a regular mailbox (not a gang box like you have at apts) all at the same time.  I don't know what I'll do with myself. 

And if after reading this you still can't think of a reason to be grateful for you home or apartment think of all the people in Haiti, Chile, and China who just lost their homes to earthquakes, or of all the people back East who lost their homes to floods, or the 1.2 million families in the U.S. that lost their homes to the recession, or the homeless in general, or those in third world countries where the people that do have homes still live in conditions I couldn't even imagine until I saw it for myself.  But you don't even have to go that far to get a taste of poverty we have plenty of it all over our own nation.

Hehehe

So I had drill this weekend and guess what . . . They let me drive a bus!  A big blue bus, with people on it, on trafficked roads.  I know right?  Those of you who know me know this probably wasn't the brightest idea on their part.  My supervisor told me I had to learn to drive the passenger bus so I can drive poor unsuspecting troops around the base and on the flight line (around big expensive airplanes).  So today a bunch of people from my section voluntarily came along to be my passengers and witness the chaos.

Little old me driving a big old bus, I had to slide the seat all the way forward and could barely be seen over the ginormous steering wheel.  But really it wasn't that bad.  I gave everyone a taste of the seat in front of them the first time I hit the brakes and on my first right hand turn I ran over the curb and nearly took out the stop sign.  I doubled back to try again and when I cleared it my passengers applauded.  I continued driving for another half an hour without further incident.  Sadly no one got a picture of the event.