I had the honor of talking with Porter, a great young man… a junior in high school… born and raised here in Idaho. I found it encouraging that the Treasure Valley is such a great place for kids to grow up and become great adults. If you are a kid… or if you have kids… see how your experiences could be if you lived in Idaho!
Check out my video below for the complete interview!!
Let's Meet Porter
Porter is a junior in high school here in Nampa; born and raised here. Some of the fun things that he likes to do… and you might too!… is to go to Bogus Basin in the winter for snowboarding… and in the summer, checking out the bunches of parks and water parks in the area. And don’t forget rafting and floating the river!
The High School Experience
“It’s not like there’s much of a difference,” Porter says about new kids in the area coming from California, Oregon or even Arizona.
Gangs at your school? “I haven’t seen anything about gangs… there’s no problems at my school.” Graffiti? “Maybe downtown… but not at my school… No, not even our senior prank; they didn’t want to get in trouble,” reflects Porter.
Is your high school pretty good? “We just changed our schedule to where we have trimesters instead of semesters. That actually gives us more electives and more classes and what we call pathways. Pathways allow us to have either medical or engineering or welding or things like that… by the end (of your senior year) it’s like you’ve already gotten like half of your college degree…”
Porter says the high school teachers “like to be one-on-one with the students. You know, we have our own mentor. They definitely care… I have teachers there that I consider like my own aunts or uncles; really very close with them. Yeah, pretty proud to say that.”
Other Teen Stuff?
Porter describes some of the other things teens can do; like work! He’s looking for a “job job” (or a real job) but in the meantime “I’m just doing like yard work and handyman work and things like that around my neighborhood because there’s always people in need of something…”
Driving in Idaho for a new driver, Idaho is “different, different driving kind of cultures (from California or Utah)… My parents don’t feel as safe when I’m on the highway (in Utah) but then here they’ll trust me cuz it’s like… (here) feels like normal driving.”
For fun, hanging out with friends; “it doesn’t really matter what we go and do; there’s always something that we can do, even in Nampa… I like going to the arcade that we have here downtown or the library; really nice library we got here.”
YouTube Viewers React
Here are some of the YouTube comments from our interview. Porter is a fantastic representative of the great young folks that we have in Idaho!
Treasure Valley Dave's Thoughts
I really enjoyed talking with Porter. It seems to me that his parents are doing a great job raising Porter and the environment of good schools and good community and other like-minded kids… young adults… Porter’s future and Idaho’s future are going to be just fine! My daughter graduated the same high school about 9 years ago and my impressions of the young adults then are the same as of Porter and his peers today… good young people keeping Idaho great!
When you’re visiting on your fact-finding trip to the Treasure Valley, be sure to keep an eye out for the younger folks here… see if you don’t feel the future of the Treasure Valley is in good hands. And if you’re thinkin’ that moving here might be the thing to do, just let Mareen and me know when you’re coming and we’ll spend some time together exploring the Treasure Valley! Just call, text, email or smash that Contact Us button and let’s get connected! Maybe we can do lunch too! 🙌
