Feels good...

I have always loved learning. That's why it came to a surprise to me that I took a semester off last winter. However it brought on an amazing/unexpected experience for me that I wont soon forget...

But I'm glad that experience is over. I'm reading to move on...and I'm ready to learn again!

Today was my first day back. I felt lighter and happier than I have over the past 2 months. I couldn't help but smile at people as I walked by. I was excited to get my notebook out and start my doodle fest on my papers again. Teachers, students...it just felt right.

I attended my new ward. First impressions are fun so here they are: awkward, fun, friendly, nervous, spiritual, smart, goofy and homey.

I know some of these will change, but I hope some of them stay the same.

Here is to learning, living and laughing! Which I plan on having a lot of all of those this year!

Meant to Be

"A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, where for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be."

[A Single Man]

I move back to Provo this week. I'm excited, happy, nervous, content and sad. I'm excited to meet new people. I'm happy for this new fresh change in my life. I'm nervous to meet new people. I'm content because I know it's where God wants me. I'm sad to be moving out and I wont see my nieces and nephews as often.

Lots of changes, but that is what life is all about. So I embrace the change and what ever may come I know I can handle with the Lord by my side.

"Dang it, that's a lot to handle"

Call me weird but the other night I was babysitting my nephew. I started reading him stories and the last book I read to him was "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" I surprised myself because I started to tear up at some parts. Read that book if you haven't read it lately. Here are some parts that I just loved (sorry kinda long sections...but so good):"You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.

You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't.
I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.
You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.
You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.
And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done."


"Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball...
Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.
I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.
All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.
And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.
But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are."

Dr. Seuss says it best.

Rainer Maria Rilke ; (Letters to a Young Poet)

"You are so young; you stand before beginnings. I would like to beg of you, dear friend, as well as I can, to have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in foreign languages. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question."

"But it is clear that we must embrace struggle. Every living thing conforms to it. Everything in nature grows and struggles in its own way, establishing its own identity, insisting on it at all costs, against all resistance. We can be sure of very little, but the need to court struggle is a surety that will not leave us. It is good to be lonely , for being alone is not easy. The fact that something is difficult must be one more reason to do it.

To love is also good, for love is difficult. For one human being to love another is perhaps the most difficult task of all, the epitome, the ultimate test. It is that striving for which all other striving is merely preparation. "

I love words. They can express such deep and meaningful insight. I go to a site often that has quotes on it. I found this one and fell in love with it.

I did it.

I went to a wedding reception today, where I didn't know anyone there...

...including my date.

P.S. I scored hard core cause this reception was catered by ColdStone.

They may look intimidating...

But they are the best friends I could've asked for this summer. They are always there for a good laugh. Ready for each and everyday! Good at smiling. They love chips and salsa, playing fun games, telling me stories and are always good listeners.

How about we freeze this moment and they stay these ages forever? I hope that they don't ever become too cool for me. I hope we all can be BFF's (Best Friends Forever).

building

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

[C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 174: book 4, chapter 9, paragraph 10]