My First Summer

So this is the my first summer away from home. It's been a wild ride for sure. Can I just throw it out there that growing up is so bittersweet? It's so nice to have all these experiences, but there's always the complicated 'grown up' stuff. As HPen tells me in every letter, C'est le vie.

Anyway, summer in Provo is so cool! First of all, there's no snow. Also, there's plenty of free stuff to do around town (one week soon we're going to a food truck round up. That's pretty snazzy.) And let me tell you, food is so good and there's still student deals. #savingdollars

Also, I'm not taking classes right now so I work a lot at super awesome job that lets me talk to fantastic people (and not so fantastic ones, too) all day long. Plus I still work for res Life so I get to see all my favorite people everyday! Not taking classes opens up a lot of time and I love finding things to fill it with. Parties, drives, movie nights, and more food. Really just exploring Provo. #lovewhereyoulive (shout out to Elmo)

And now for some pictures. Because that's what this is really all about right?

Just chillin at the UP HOUSE in Herriman, Utah. It's an exact replica! Excuse the ratchet level of this picture. It was after a temple day. 

Excuse the derp face. 

Oquirrh Mountain Temple with my favorites! This was the second temple we went to that day. We hit up the Draper temple too, but we didn't get a picture there. 

Then one day Jason and I went to the zoo. Luckily we're both like 5-year-olds so it was the experience of a lifetime. Also, we pretty sure that they just spray painted the black bears white and called them polar bears. And we can't forget that zebras have five wives?

Okay, we literally looked all over for the sloth (Hoffman) and everyone else found him in like 2 seconds. Jason really wanted to steal him but I wouldn't let him. I'm too pretty to go to jail yet. 

Family picture <3 My long lost Ranga sista friend. 

One of us looking semi-normal.

HOFFMAN. I want him so badly. He's perfect - seriously.

So at the zoo we learned about sloths and their "cuddle puddles". Here is our cuddle pudd (no "le" because Zach wouldn't join us.)

Also, can I just say I'm so glad that Jason and Taylor became best friends on the mish because that means that Taylor and I also became best friends on the mish and now we're the three best friends anyone could have. 

Lei and I went to the temple while Amber studied for finals. We always look so cute so we have to take a picture every time. FYI, the Provo temple is extremely busy Fridays so pick another time to go. Or go to another temple like we do hahah. 

After the temple we got unratchet and hung out with Taylor! He's the greatest.

#swelfie - It's that thing where you go to swig and take a selfie. I missed the cute memo. Thanks y'all. Oh well, still cute though.

Okay I have so much else to write about (another time) still! Like that one time I went to California! Or that time I went to a Bees game! Or that time that I went to Camp Kesem... wait that didn't happen yet.

Moral of the story is that there is so much fun to be had and so much still to be shared.

Take the time to do something adventurous. Live in moment. Just do! And life will be happy I swear.  

Happiness is...

As an RA, I'm required to take a 2-credit class that is basically job training through the semester. We learn practical skills such as what to do in emergencies, but every Tuesday we meet with a psychologist as a class and she teaches us different things to look for with mental health aspects of our job. (This isn't to say we assess and diagnose, but rather that we have resources for when our residents have questions).

This week we talked about happiness.

According to a study, our happiness can be broken down into 3 aspects: biological, circumstantial, and personal choices.
10% of our happiness is circumstantial.
50% is biological.
40% is our personal choices.

This literally means our happiness is dependent on our choosing. WE decide whether or not we want to be happy!

This got me to thinking about the past year. Things have definitely changed. And I've definitely noticed it throughout the semester, but it smacked me in the face yesterday.

Because yesterday it snowed.

And I was happy about it. 

Yeah. You read it right. 

I. Was. Happy.

And I told A and N and they realized what a big deal this was and gave me a hug like I'd won some sort of competition.

And I guess in a way I had. I'd conquered my fears and my hesitation and my setbacks and my worries and I had final embraced my situation and realized how AMAZING my life is and how incredibly blessed I am. It's really remarkable.

And it may not mean a lot to you, but it means everything to me.

"Stand ye in Holy Places"

The greatest miracles I see today are not necessarily the healing of sick bodies, but the greatest miracles I see are the healing of sick souls, those who are sick in soul and spirit and are downhearted and distraught, on the verge of nervous breakdowns. We are are reaching out to all such, because they are precious in the sight of the Lord, and we want no one to feel that they are forgotten...
You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is. You must be sure, if you would rescue the man, that you yourself are setting the example of what you would have him be. You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul.

-President Harold B. Lee

Love It Like A Little Kid

For the original article, click here.

I’ve met a couple of young children in the past couple weeks (some family friends, some coming to shows, some just at the grocery store that I follow around for a few isles before their parents give me looks), and after spending enough time around them, and comparing myself to them (which I realize is a weird impulse), I came to a sad realization:

I don’t love anything the way they love everything.

For instance, I watched one of them just go nuts with this balloon. From the minute he found it, he was completely in love with the balloon. Nothing could tear away his attention. Any cares he had prior to the balloon (probably not many, to be fair), were completely washed away. You could have offered him a magical ride on a golden carpet made of french fries, and he probably still would have chosen to stay there and just mess around with this balloon.

Nowadays, even when I find something that makes me feel the way that I think that balloon probably made him feel (Michigan football, steak sandwiches, Fall weather, new Drake songs, etc), I can’t love it like that. I can’t have that same reaction. I’m happy, but not little-kid-with-a-balloon-or-a-puppy-or-the-thought-of-ice-cream-happy. I’m happy, but I’m distracted.

Here’s the difference: kid happiness blinds you to everything else. Modern happiness (for me, at least) just feels like a temporary break from my permanent march toward something else: obligations, sleep, death? Kid love is everything, modern love is just…something.

So, now fully self-aware of that shortcoming, I’ve started trying something. Now, when something that I love happens, I try to fully immerse myself in it. I try not to think about it as temporary: it’s what I’m doing so it’s everything that I am.

And it didn’t really work with the Michigan game on Saturday or the steak sandwich I bought at Subway the other day. It didn’t really work with anything until I tried it on stage the other night. I was performing, a job that I love, and I let myself just do that. I tried not to worry about how much water I was drinking, my posture, my banter, where I was placing the sound when I was singing, how I was holding the microphone, and I just let myself be right exactly where I was.

And, as the kid and his balloon would confirm, it worked! Before I knew it, I wasn’t thinking about any of those things. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about anything. I was just letting myself do nothing but love what I was doing. And all of my worldly concerned and long-term fears were gone.  I never understood that “in that moment, I felt infinite” line from Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I got it then, and I think that the key, at least for me, to getting it, was thinking about that little kid with the balloon.

My conclusion was this: if you let yourself love the things you love SO MUCH that for a temporary period of time forget that it’s a temporary period of time, you’ll love it exactly like you’re supposed to: like a little kid.

-Paradise Fears

They opened for Parachute and were sososo nerd-tastically cute, but I just really loved this post.

In a university of 30,000 people, it sure can be easy to feel so alone.

But I sure am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
"I am sure at one time or another we have all thought it would be nice to take up residence in a land filled only with days of picture-perfect seasons and avoid the unpleasant times in between.

But this is not possible. Nor is it desirable. ...

The question is not whether we will experience seasons of adversity but how we will weather the storms.

Sometimes we cannot understand why difficult, even unfair, things happen in life. But as followers of Christ, we trust that if we “search diligently, pray always, and be believing, … all things shall work together for [our] good, if [we] walk uprightly” (D&C 90:24; emphasis added).

Still, we will have to pass through all seasons—both pleasant and painful. But no matter the season, as followers of Jesus the Christ, we will rest our hope upon Him as we walk toward His light."

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985):
“If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective. …
“Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?”