Leaving the Y. Why?

Well. The time has come. Or rather, the time has passed. My career as an undergraduate in Provo, UT is concluded. I don't yet have my diplomas, but they will be in the mail in a few months. I am headed to Washington, DC for my student teaching, after which I will officially graduate in April. When I'm done I think I will begin teaching mathematics in Sudan. I've thought a lot about where to teach and I think Sudan is just the whole package- warm climate, terrorist run government, lots of money (in piracy), and I've heard the students give lagniappes galore, such as sand, loin clothes, and AK-47s. That just sounds like a perfect fit for me.
There are a lot of things I'm going to miss about Provo. Excluding people, who are too many to list, the following are things I loved about Utah that will be hard to go on without: movie theaters with $1.50 admissions, the Provo River Parkway, free copies of The New York Times, and the Cannon Center.

• The Dollar Theater: Over the years I think I have discoursed enough on the virtues of only paying $1.50 for a movie ticket. I think I would be willing to sacrifice my appendix for a dollar theater in Boston or DC. I'm not entirely sure how those two are related, but if my appendix were worth a movie theater I would trade it in a heartbeat.
• The Provo River Parkway: This trail is glorious. There is anything better in the world than running shirtless along this path on a sunny, October, Saturday afternoon. Perhaps an august August afternoon would be better. And if you're a girl, probably forget the shirtless part, too. But all in all, I think they should name some type of cake the following: "Better than the Provo River Parkway cake." Oh wait, that doesn't exist.
• Free copies of The New York Times: There was  a partnership between BYU and the Times that allowed for free copies of the Times to be distributed around campus. I love picking up a copy in the morning and reading it over lunch in the afternoon. I continued this tradition for three years and saw it as a great asset to my education.
• The Cannon Center: I think I only ate at this cafeteria twice without being sick, but every time was worth it anyway. For a breakfast price of $6.80, there was all you could eat fruit, omelets, two other hot dishes, desserts, and chocolate milk. I think I once paid $6.80 for a glass of chocolate milk when I was on an airplane.  Anyway, I only go to the Cannon Center with people I love (Carson, my brother, Brook, Brad, Amy, Ada) so that makes me appreciate it even more. I did find the live cannon fire to be rather annoying whenever anyone ordered the 'cannon burrito' but I got used to it after six times. It was the 'rifle nachos' that scared me, mostly because my favorite seat was right at the end of the firing range and the plates they gave out were bulls eyes. I always thought that was strange and a little dangerous.

Yes, there are many more things I will miss about Utah, and I'm sure they'll become more prevalent as the time away deepens.