No cell phone, no car, no basketball … I hate Price

This archived article was written by: Marco Dansberry

First and foremost, let me state that I don’t like Price. In fact I cant stand it and spend most of my time in my dorm room after 9 p.m. complaining about it and how I cant wait to leave it.
I know the first question that pops into a readers head after reading this is, If you hate Price so much, why did you come here? I usually answer, I am still asking myself that.
The truth of the matter is, I do know why I came to Price. I came because I thought I would play basketball for CEU. My mother pleaded with me to just go to Weber State since we’re from Layton. She told me it would be convenient and cheaper and that I would hate Price. I told her it wouldn’t matter as long as I played basketball.
When I arrived in Price, I was full of hope, had a car, a cell phone and dreams. I would loose two of the three within two months. Within three weeks I was the last player cut from the basketball team (dreams) and almost a month later I got in an accident on Highway 6 (car).
The first year wasn’t as bad as the second. I knew I hadn’t been good enough to make the basketball team and accepted that so I focused all my time on training, lifting and playing basketball. I was so focused on this, I didn’t realize that was really the only thing to do in Price: go to class,computer lab, gym or eat.
This is enough to keep a person busy in the day but after 9 p.m., there is absolutely nothing to do. When you’re a college student and have classes all day, 9 p.m. hits really fast. Most nights I walk around the dorms or talk on my phone, which I lost at the end of the year because I ran up the minutes. Most students realize this campus closes at about 9 p.m., why cant the gym stay open until 11 p.m.? Maybe there is a good answer, if there is, I would like to know because I know the gym is not empty at 9 p.m?
As you can see I lost much when I came to Price. I did gain an education (more on that later). As you can see, the first year was not that bad; the second year is a different story.
My second year I wasn’t even supposed to be at CEU, or at least that’s what I tell myself. I had a chance to play basketball at another college, but it was not offering scholarships so mom made me come back here where all my credits were. I came back to tryout for the team and was cut in a day, then the hell started.
I had no car, phone, or aspirations, just Price and me. This is when I started to notice Price. I noticed that its almost like an island in the middle of nowhere. There is only, for me at least, one way in and one way out. Its a dangerous way at that, its also secluded in the middle of nowhere.
I noticed it was almost like a prison, because I could go for a month without traveling a half-mile radius. Also like prison, when I leave Price, it feels like everything on the outside changes. All my friends have been having fun and are different while it feels like I am wasting my free time. The biggest resemblance CEU has to a prison is the lunch room. The food is not good and I don’t care how you put it. When I go for dinner, I don’t eat what I think is good, I eat what I can stomach. I don’t know what can be done about the food. That seems like a subject that has been beat to death. I learned to deal with it, mostly because I don’t know whom to blame for it. The hamburgers and the grill are decent but since they don’t have a real variety, it gets old really quick.
There are the good things Price did for me. One thing Price has done for me is made me a better son. Now whatever my mother tells me to do; I do … no matter what, because I didn’t listen to her about Price. Since she saw this coming, she must be wise and I should listen to absolutely everything she says. It gave me an education, which came quite easily, I might add. I got better grades at CEU than in high school. It came easy because there is nothing else to do except go to school.
I know if I went to Weber, I would not have as good of grades because I would have been out having fun, partying and not being focused. Price helped me appreciate the little things in life, because while in Price, I had nothing but a dorm room to sit in every night. I didn’t even bring all my clothes because there is no need to wear nice things because there is no-where and no reason to wear them.
The last thing is, I just grew up. I don’t really act like a kid anymore. I am mature because all I have is school and the gym. There are no times to just go wild and do crazy type stuff, like a lot of college kids would do. I don’t worry about going to parties, I would be fine just hanging out with my mom or at a movie because that is enough to satisfy me. A person cant even catch a good movie in Price.
Price has some good points. To find those, one has too look deep beneath the surface. Price has better weather than almost anywhere in Utah. It could be snowing everywhere and it wouldn’t be snowing in Price. For example just a couple of weeks ago there was a serious blizzard in Salt Lake and there wasn’t a trace of snow in Price. It was warm enough Sunday for me to play basketball without a shirt on and I don’t think I could do that in Layton or Salt Lake right now.
Another good point is the teachers. I do not know much about college teachers since this is the only college I have attended, but this school has a good group of teachers. The classes are small and unlike larger schools, teachers help students after class. I think only in an environment like this would a college teacher even notice a student was out of class. Not just the teachers, the people are nice too. In some ways Price is like the sitcom Cheers, everybody knows your name, so much in fact the guy that takes my dinner orders remembers my food card number before I say it.
Then there is ASCEU, I don’t know a lot about them I admit, but they try to make Price better for students. I must also divulge that I don’t go to many of the events they put on. Its just not my type of thing but a lot of students do go and enjoy it. They have dances, Fear Factor, intramural sports and lots of other events.