It seemed to Joe that every morning he was the first to rise in all of Tooele. His job as a plumber required him to start much earlier than most of the other working people. This morning started out much like any other.
He made his morning coffee, toasted a bagel and was just sitting down to turn on the TV, when he heard a strange noise. Since Joe lived right next to The Great Salt Lake he figured it was probably just a boat going for an early morning sail, and it would soon pass.
But the sound persisted. It was
so subtle that it was hard for him to figure out exactly what it was. He listened to the slow, rhythmic pounding for a couple of minutes. It was calming, yet powerful at the same time. Finally he decided to go outside and find out what was going on.
He opened his door, and instead of the fishy, dirty, smell that greeted him every morning, he was hit with a clean, salty aroma. Right when he stepped outside he stopped. What he saw was so breathtaking, so incredible, he felt as if he was in a dream. If this in fact was a dream Joe hoped that he would never awake, for what was before him was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on.
Imagine that The Great Salt Lake suddenly turned into an ocean.
For Joe, the weeks following the discovery of this strange new ocean, were extremely exciting. Slowly Joe began to sink into a whole new lifestyle. His daily routines changed greatly.
There were so many tourists around, he decided to quit his job, and open a surf board rental shop. This was a dream come true. He didn't dread going to work anymore, in fact he looked forward everyday to opening the shop. Each morning instead of getting up and showering, Joe would go take a dip in the ocean. At night, rather than sitting and watching TV, he would walk on the beach, and gaze at the ocean's beauty that was so new to him.
He started thinking that he would never be stressed again. Each night Joe fell asleep with thoughts going through his head like "What could I have possibly done to deserve this?"
In the months to come Joe started to notice Tooele was becoming very congested. It took him three times as long to get to the store as it use to. At first he liked seeing all of these different people coming to visit his city, but soon the excitement wore off. It was a nuisance having to sit in traffic for half an hour just to go get some milk.
But Joe figured this was a small price to pay for having such a glorious ocean in his backyard. Since there was such a high demand to live in Tooele, Joe started to notice there was always construction going on. This didn't really bother him until they started building condominiums right next to his house.
The construction was extremely loud, and he started having trouble sleeping. But every time Joe saw the ocean he pushed aside his negative thoughts, and was just thankful to be living next to something so remarkable.
The first year Joe got his property assessment he was surprised at how much the value increased. Joe would have been excited about this, but his property taxes went up also. For the first year he tried not to let this worry him. His surf shop was doing well and he felt he could make the payments.
After they finished construction by his house, Joe felt he had no more privacy because of the huge condominiums on either side of him. He felt small against these enormous monsters, as if he were standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon. With so many people coming to the beach every day, it started to get really messy.
When he would wake up in the morning he would find beer bottles from all the teenagers that were keeping him awake with their partying the night before. Joe's property taxes were rising so high it started to overwhelm him. He didn't know how he could make the payments. He had to work another job as a garbage man to make enough money to keep his house.
He was so stressed out even the ocean couldn't help him relax. Every night as he was slipping into a troubled sleep Joe would think "What could I have possibly done to deserve this."
Biography
Andrew Rouse is actually in India right now, participating in a three-week humanitarian project sponsored by a Salt Lake group called Youth Making a Difference. The group has adopted four orphanages in Chamba, India. He has spent the past nine months raising money and preparing English and health and hygiene lessons, says his mother, Jenny. In addition to helping the children in India, the program helps our kids learn to be adults. That's really a good thing. And that's a big part of what Andrew has done this year.
When he's not doing things like that, Andrew likes to snowboard; he reads all the time, and he plays the guitar.
"My husband and I are from California, and Malibu is like a second home," says his mother, who thinks that's where the idea for Andrew's entry came from. He relates to that ocean culture.
A junior at Highland High School, Andrew is the son of Jenny and Bill Rouse, Salt Lake City, and has a younger sister and brother.
—Carma Wadley