Student discovers summer in Logan

It’s kind of surreal to walk around campus during the summer.

This is only the second summer I’ve stayed in Logan instead of going back to my parents’ place since I started in the fall of 2004. For one reason or another I never stuck around. My friends would stay in town, and I’d come up and visit weekly. But the decrease in traffic was my only tip off that anything was different.

Sometimes I’d even have to come up to campus to talk to an academic advisor or the registrar’s office, but those were few and far between.

Now I’m in town because I have a stable job and a wife and one more semester until I graduate and move away to work at some job where I have to wear a tie and big-boy pants five days a week. To ease my load in my last semester, I decided to take a couple summer classes.

So when I find myself walking the near empty sidewalks or past dark offices, I can’t help but feel that something is wrong. There isn’t, of course. It is just nice that it’s all so peaceful and it makes me wish I had spent more summers in Logan.

It’s a crying shame really, because after months of waking up before the sun, putting on four layers, and deciding between walking through knee-high snow drifts or finding a route to class that takes me through buildings, I find the spring (once it finally decided to make an appearance) makes up for my Nordic trek to class.

If I could back up my education and start over, I'd spend more time in Logan taking summer classes.

Logan has so much to offer now that things are warming up. This year we have the flooding to keep in mind, too, but that just means everything’s going to be green for longer and we will be at less of a risk for fire, right? And the rain is suppressing the pollen, so my wife’s allergies aren’t acting up.

It’s also refreshing to complete class work on an accelerated schedule, because that’s all I have to focus on, besides work. It’s nice to walk outside at 2:30 in the afternoon knowing I’m free to play until the sun sets. My friends and I can grab a croquet set or bocce balls, head to a park, kick off our shoes and feel the grass between our toes, and play until we feel the cool canyon breeze pick up.

Nice. I’ve discovered summer in Logan.

Paul Lewis Siddoway