I went to BYU because I knew I wanted to go to a church school. My brothers had all gone to Ricks and my sister went to BYU. I grew up in Minnesota where there aren't a lot of Mormons and I wanted to be in a Mormon environment.

I loved BYU. But really, any group situation is just as good as your friends are. I had a great group of friends, so I was happy. If I hadn't made great friends, I wouldn't have been happy.

But, I do think the environment of BYU was good for me. I felt like I was going to school in the '50s and there was a lot of junk I didn't have to deal with because I was surrounded by like-minded people (like-minded actually isn't the right term, but it's something close - we had shared values). Sure, sometimes other student's attitudes were weird or extreme, but they were just to be laughed at. My friends that went to regular college had experiences and struggles that I didn't. I could've gotten into trouble at BYU - anyone can make bad choices anywhere they are - but it was easier not to.

So, what didn't I like about BYU? Here goes:

1) At least once or twice a year, some girl would get up during testimony meeting and start crying about the fact that her roommate (or whoever) had just gotten engaged and she was so happy for her, but when (oh when) was it going to be her turn?

She's an old maid and she's 20. It's a tragedy.

This happened in every ward was I in, every year that I went to BYU. So, I'd say it was a BYU thing, not just a few individual girls. But, I don't know.

2) Once, I had to go home and change my shorts because they were too short by an an inch or two. That was inconvenient.

Okay, I'm out.

I liked everything else. I loved hanging out at the Cougareat, I loved the library, I liked checking out the paintings in the HFAC, I liked the testing center, I loved my art history classes, I liked International Cinema, I liked not being weird, I liked the bookstore, I liked that almost every single person I met was a Mormon, I loved the mountains, I liked running at the track, I liked dating, I liked hanging out at Denny's, I liked that you could be rebellious just by not stopping when the National Anthem came on, I liked Swim Herschel Swim, I liked walking to Tank's, I liked eating at Los Hermanos, I liked the dollar movie ("at the Cinemark we want everyone to have fun"), I liked dancing at the Ivy, I liked hiking, I liked driving up to Salt Lake, I liked going to devotionals when I felt like it, I liked shopping at Smiths. I just liked the whole thing.

So, what was my point? I guess that I liked BYU and needy girls are annoying. There you go.