The Saratoga Sun -

My name is Ezra Boileau, and I am a summer intern with the Saratoga Sun. While the newness of this position makes me nothing short of green, I am excited for the opportunity to meet people and gain journalism experience under the guidance of Josh Wood.

I hail from the rolling green hills of central Kentucky, just south of Lexington. Growing up there was a unique thing, as it was an odd mixture of urban, suburban and rural horse pasture, all within a twenty minute drive of my front door. I had never felt like a Kentuckian, even though it’s where I was born and raised, and though I loved my friends and family there, something inside of me didn’t allow me to stay. After taking an AP Environmental Science course my senior year of high school, I knew that was the academic path that I wanted to take. As Wyoming happens to provide some of the most pristine wildlands in the nation, making the move to Wyoming a natural progression in my academics as well as my personal desires. At that point in my life, I had never fully identified with my central Kentucky home, so visiting my family in northern Colorado for many summers led me out west for my undergraduate degree and to enjoy the natural beauty that Wyoming has to offer.

Though I originally wanted to go to the University of Wyoming straight away, the cost of out-of -state tuition prompted me to attend Central Wyoming College’s Lander campus for the first two years of my bachelors degree. If you had known me then, I probably wouldn’t have been very open about where I’m from. I think at that point, I had a lot of shame associated with where I come from. Likely, this shame stemmed from not fitting the stereotype that people ascribe to Kentuckians. For instance, I own shoes, I don’t have much of an accent, I try to have passable grammar, and I value education. Though these are only stereotypes, I didn’t enjoy being associated with such things. Thus, the move to Wyoming served as a sort of abandonment of my Kentucky roots, an attempt at shedding my childhood and seeking to become my own person. Though a true attempt, it was feeble, and although people in Lander were very good to me, I never truly felt at home there. The first sense of home that I felt there was in the spring of 2020, which as you all know, was also the genesis of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States.

Covid-19 introduced a new element of chaos into seemingly everyone’s life, including my own. With school transitioning online, I struggled as I never had before academically. As shutdowns continued and the virus spread, I longed for home. It was the sense of comfort and peace I had been missing during my time in Lander. Due to the coronavirus and finishing my schooling in Lander, I realized that it was a perfect time to move back home, and in August of 2020, I did just that. I stayed in Kentucky for the following year, resuming my academics in the spring semester of 2021 with the University of Wyoming, completely online. As the coronavirus seemed to be coming under control, I decided to leave home once more and continue at the University of Wyoming, thankfully in person. This time, as I moved back to Wyoming, I decided to take my home with me in my heart and claim that heritage as my own. It is a powerful thing, where we’re from, and I’m glad to have finally realized that. Now, I am a lot more open with myself and others about where I’m from and what it means to me.

I recently concluded my junior year at the University of Wyoming and am majoring in Environmental Systems Science with a minor in Sustainability. I truly love going to school there and living in Laramie. In my free time, I enjoy rock climbing, playing my mandolin and reading books, especially if written by Edward Abbey.

I am looking forward to meeting people around the Valley this summer, so please feel free to introduce yourself if you see me around town or contact me at [email protected] if you need anything at all.