Some may consider Arizona to be a barren desert wasteland, but as I drive on the freeway and head towards down town Phoenix, I see something different; I see life. There are lights glistening in the landscape, beautiful mountains with hues of purple from the setting sun, and the faint smell of a creosote tree after a light rain. These are just a few things that make Arizona home to me and to the hundreds of people that are settling in this great state every day.
With but a few days left before I made the move from Tucson up to my dorm room and new “home” of Flagstaff, I was most certainly on a time crunch. There was so much to do and so many people to see that finding time for anything seemed nothing short of impossible. In the attempt to keep myself sane, every night I would go out on a walk or run in the beautiful desert areas surrounding my house without regard for time or light left or tasks to be accomplished when I returned from my excursion. When I ran, I didn’t really pay attention to the little details going on around me, but when I walked, and focused on taking everything in, I noticed so many breathtaking sites and innumerable memories flooded my head.
With but a few days left before I made the move from Tucson up to my dorm room and new “home” of Flagstaff, I was most certainly on a time crunch. There was so much to do and so many people to see that finding time for anything seemed nothing short of impossible. In the attempt to keep myself sane, every night I would go out on a walk or run in the beautiful desert areas surrounding my house without regard for time or light left or tasks to be accomplished when I returned from my excursion. When I ran, I didn’t really pay attention to the little details going on around me, but when I walked, and focused on taking everything in, I noticed so many breathtaking sites and innumerable memories flooded my head.
It is said that “home is where the heart is,” and I never truly understood this quote until I moved to Arizona. My family moved several different times, before finding the place we knew, and felt would be our home for the rest of our lives. Whenever we moved, we lost intimacy with the land and the house. A house was just a house. I have now lived in Arizona for 8 years and it has become my home. My heart now resides in Arizona. My soul belongs to the warm summer days, kindling my passion of education, culture, and beauty.
Growing up I knew only one place as my home, Arizona. I am proud to identify myself with a people, the Navajo, who have inhabited the Arizona area for hundreds of years. Now, I find myself, the first of a generation that has adopted a modern way of living, yet is able to maintain traditions and cultures.
I was born and raised in western Tucson and have no wish of being anywhere else. Sure when I was 8, I would say things like I want to move to New York, or California, or Florida! Now that I have had a while to live life and see the USA, I see now that Arizona really is the place to be.
Lois McMaster Bijold once stated, “My home is not a place, it is people.” A setting can only be defined by the people and experiences that take place in it. A hometown becomes one’s dwelling place-one’s place of refuge. One can only call somewhere home if the environment is inviting and a place of comfort for the individual, a feeling of complete ease and peace must be present. Arizona has done this exact thing for me. Moving here seven years ago was the best decision my family ever made because in an environment that appears as a desert to the common outsider, I found something much greater and much deeper: my home.
Arizona has many possibilities to elevate the mind. Public education is essential for future progression. What sets Arizona apart from the rest of the states in the education realm is the inspirational components that supplement learning. The ecology of Arizona provides natural adaptation techniques to ascertain from. The wondrous panorama of the state enlightens spirits. Natural settings promote adventure to achieve well-being. The benefits of desert living inspire seekers of knowledge.
Home is where the heart is! Oh how true the words. Born in Arizona, raised all over the world, my father having been in the armed forces, my heart was always longing to be in a special place I could call home. At the tender age of three, I left my beautiful Arizona and took a journey around the world, not to return for another 34 years. Europe and the Netherlands were wonderful places to visit but there is no comparison to my sunshine filled summers here in Arizona. Hawaii was stunning, but paled against the magnificent Arizona sunsets, which display an unparalleled range of colors crossing over the color spectrum many times in one setting — simply breathtaking! Likewise, mere words cannot illustrate the visual effects created by an Arizona lightning storm as they are absolutely phenomenal. Arizona is home to a rich oasis of copious beauty, heritage, fame, sports, education and diversity. Furthermore, the bouquet of clean scented aroma created by showers cascading over the desert is a unique smell, perhaps as distinctive as the fragrance produced by the creosote bush. Arizona is home to a rich oasis of copious beauty, heritage, diversity and education.
“It was here, standing above this awe-inspiring and treacherous canyon wall, that I had found myself. It was at that very moment, gazing into the canyon where my grandfather and his father had struggled to tame this wild land, that I knew I was of this place. This land forged by time, creation and destruction. Its very air was my breath, its soil my flesh, and its history, its peoples history, my heart.” This is an excerpt from an essay I had written two years ago about “finding myself” entitled Arizona and I.
