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Orem High Seminary

When I was almost 15, my family moved to Orem, Utah because my father got a job at BYU in the Business School.  I started my 10th grade year at Orem High School and spent the next three years there.  I was not looking forward to moving.  We had moved about 2.5 years earlier to Plano, Texas, from Indianapolis, Indiana, and it was a hard move.  It took me a while to find friends and I don't think I ever felt like I truly fit in. So I anticipated that would be the case once again in Orem.  Fortunately I was wrong.

I found friends right away who lived quite close by and I felt comfortable very quickly.  One thing I enjoyed about our new location was going to my religion class called seminary (no credit) during the school day.  When I was in 9th grade, seminary was held before school.  I got up every morning so I could get completely ready for school and make it to seminary on time at 6am.  It was rough.  I did lots of sleep-walking that year, due to lack of sleep, and I also got the influenza and was sick in bed for a week.  I definitely needed more sleep.  So not having to get up so early was really nice.

Seminary was great.  I still remember my teachers quite well--Brother Hull, Brother Young, Brother Gubler, and Brother Parker.  They were good people and I enjoyed my classes.  We memorized scripture references and we were encouraged to be members of the ACAD club--a chapter a day of scriptures.  I have good memories of that time of my life.

What sparked this memory?  Today I was picking up my son at the high school for a track meet and I saw the seminary building being torn down.  It's an old building and they are building a new one to be finished by this fall.  Currently the seminary students are walking to a nearby church for their classes.

I'm sure the new building will be great but I just felt a tiny bit of nostalgia seeing that old building being torn down.



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