2014 In Review

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December." 

-James M. Barrie

-Worked at Sundance! Worked with amazingly positive and outgoing people. 

-Met great people like my friend Joey there. He introduced me to Pho. He also got me turquoise earrings for my birthday and took me up to Park City (see later).

-Became a TA. It was both terrifying and enriching.

-Went to the Spanish Fork Buddhist temple for a lesson. Life is filled with many reasons to dance and celebrate!

-Had my first surgery--> Wisdom teeth. Could NOT have done it without my friend Brandt. Truly an angel.

-Olympics!! Charlotte Kalla wins gold in the Cross Country Ski. She went from 3rd to first in the final minute. She wanted it BAD. 

-Someone shot by best friend to be initiated into a gang. Inspiring story.

Click this to watch that video

-Went to Park City for my birthday!

 

-April 24th. I graduated! My mom and dad surprised me with a very generous graduation gift. It was enough to help me with that last little bit to buy my car. We went up to Sundance to eat afterwards. Also had great support from my family. ☺️

-April 25. Chantelle got engaged!

-April 25. Moved up to Salt Lake City. I prayed about it, and I felt like I should go up to SLC to live with Chantelle for the summer. Although I might've been more of a hassle to her than a service, she taught me a lot about friendship, relationships, and how to let loose and relax. So glad I got to spend the last couple months of her singlehood with her. That includes the late nights spent talking about nightmares, or the early mornings driving her to her dress fittings. Love her. 

-Found my ancestors gravestone. Still working on it...

-May 8. Jacquie my good friend sent me a cool article about an autistic son's love of Disney!

Link about Autistic son

-Ankur, Anna Killian, Niles, Eleise Hinton, Jacquie, Abbi Koch, Mr. Moyer, Steph Tardiff, Bojana, Leigh, Maggie, Alysia, Jason, Courtney...just listing a few people that reached out to me this year. And I really needed it. Seriously, thanks to them, I get to see how great life is when you have friends. 

-Took classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center. Psychology from a sweet old man. ☺️

-May 21. I got dreads!! Had em for about 3 months. So fun!!

-Bought my first car!

-May 24. Went to Goblin Valley and camped out! Had some fun ;) in the desert. Saw beautiful canyons there. 

-Donut Falls Hike & the Living Room hike

-Extra in a movie as a zombie

-Worked as a Janitor at the Salt Lake Courthouse

-Joined my ward's softball team! Learned how to play softball...

-June 14. Hiked Squaw Peak. 

-My tire blew out. Thanks to the support of family and friends, everything turned out fine. Even after I had one tire replaced twice more! 

-4th of July! Zions Nat'l Park!

-July 10-13. Went to Lake Powell!!! With Court and her family and mish friends

-Guiding on the Provo

 

(from Westwater a while back)

-July 18th. 4th time up Mt. Timp! With Abby and friends

-July 29th. Ziplining in Provo Canyon with Alex!

-Hiked up Big Cottonwood with Mo and Michaela!

-Aug 8. Chantelle got married!

-Aug 14. Moved to Denver!

-Aug 25. Started pharmacy school!

-Denver's nightlife! Dancing, eating, socializing, festivals, music. <3

-Sept 13-14. Grandby Cabin trip. 

-Sept 26. Big Gigantic Concert at Red Rocks!

-Oct 11-14. Ft. Morgan Immersion trip. Melissa, Melissa, me, Jacqueline. 

-Oct 17. Hiking in CO Nat'l park!

-Colorado Springs & Ft. Collins Kaitlin's Vball games. With cous Kate. :)

-Halloween parties with wardies & besties. 

-Nov 8. Ski season starts. Snowboarding in Colorado! Copper and Keystone!

-New temple! Denver :) love it

-Nov 30. First flu clinic. 

-Dec 5. Ice skating in Downtown Denver with besties!

-Dec 12. Finished my first semester in pharmacy school! Great team, great memories. 

-Dec 13. Eagles Hockey game!

-Dec 14. Got to see Eleise! 

-Dec 15. Taught Jason how to snowboard! 

-Dec 17. Went to the Ohio! 

-Dec 22. Had a high school get together party. 

And that's a wrap. Just today, I was feeling down because I couldn't remember much from this year. I'm glad I put this together. I can't say it enough, but this year really was filled with things that got me OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE! And because of it, I have met some amazing people. I'd say it's a year making new friends and rekindling the old friendships. Thanks to the many people who touched my heart this year. 

Standing Up to Live

A good sign that you haven't written on blogger in a while is when you misspell it in the search bar as "bloog" and you get a e-cig website instead.

Hello again. 

I wouldn't say that I have an incredibly illustrious life that keeps me from writing. My dear friend Henry says it best:

"How vain it is to sit down to when you have not stood up to live."

Boy, did I have a lot of living to do (and still do). It was made very apparent to me that I might have fallen short of memories in life. It has been humbling. In this, I am very aware of my imperfection. Imperfection is not so bothersome because it's real, but because it requires patience for its acceptance. 

Anyways, I just wanted to write a short post. 

And let myself willingly accept that I miss Utah. 

I'll call them my Utahan utopian years--mostly because I'm thrilled with the alliteration.

D is for Denver. Daring, devout, distinguished Denver.

After meeting with my friend Zach, I have the strong desire to express my appreciation for the Denver area--the 9 days I've been here so far!

Just me and my Sub. All I had when I arrived in Denver.

What an amazing place this is! I think that any area can be great if you have the right attitude, but I think Denver is blessed with exceptionally great people. The first night, a local restaurant employee sincerely welcomed me to the area. A lady at the store turned around to me and showed me the clothing items she was buying that day. A couple days later, a man talks with me for 30 min in front of the soup stand at the grocery store. The people are genuinely friendly here. They don't have any other motives other than being a good neighbor. I love that.

Denver. No editing. 

How did I end up here? Well, I had the opportunity to go to a couple of different pharmacy schools, but I chose Regis because they're going to turn me into the pharmacist I want to be! Someone with integrity and compassion along with wisdom and expertise. I'll never forget how much peace and light I felt when asked, "Why Regis?" in my interview.

How did I get here? The help of a friendly bishopric member. I was concerned--or rather my mom was quite concerned--that I needed to find another LDS girl to live with. With that in mind, I contacted 10 different bishops in the Denver area. Within 24 hours, 3 got back to me. THREE! Three busy, working, focused people that already had plenty of people that needed their attention, but they took the time to get back to me. TO ME. Someone they had never met.

And one proved to be a fantastic roommate match! Enter Kjirstin. What are the chances that she and I already have something in common (other than our faith)? Well, we did. And that was a shared roommate. Again, what are the chances that she and I both had the same roommate at different universities? Enter Rachel.

Other events over the last 9 days have proved the Lord is acutely aware of us. Down to the minute details. For example, I met with my Branch President, President Watterson (the leader of my small congregation) last Sunday only to find out...that we also shared a common thread. Enter Shirley Lassen. President Watterson mentioned he only knew two people from Ohio. One of them happened to be Shirley Lassen. Out of the whole state of Ohio, what are the chances that I would know her? Well, I did. My dad went to her home once a month for years and home taught her. Do you see a pattern here? The Lord was acutely aware of Shirley Lassen. And it was another confirmation that this is where I am supposed to be.

I could go on and tell you how cool it has been to connect with my classmates about our faiths, or how I've met an amazing bunch of LDS young single adults, or how I felt inspired to share my testimony about the eternal nature of families (or how this sentence is a run-on), but that will have to be at another time (and maybe a different medium). For now, I'd like to end by saying: hold to the truths that you do know. And I do know that my Heavenly Father loves me.