Practice What You Teach

This past week has been a whirlwind of final exams, working a grand total of 35 hours, saying good-bye to one of my best friends who's heading home to submit her mission papers, and the beginning of spring term. My roommate Alyssa and I decided that we wanted to stay at BYU for spring semester to work and take a couple of classes. Our apartment complex turned from being packed to capacity into somewhat of a ghost town. Allow me to paint you a picture with absolutely terrible quality, shoutout to my old and outdated phone, but to give the thing props, it did survive being dropped in the snow this winter...twice: Yes, that's the parking lot of my apartment complex, which for all of fall and winter semesters was constantly packed with cars and is now deserted. Don't be fooled though, spring term has already been an absolute blast so far, despite the smaller number of people! We've already made some awesome new friends and I'm looking forward to meeting even more peo...

I've titled this post "A Semester of Growth," because that really is what this semester has been for me. This growth has come through trials. These trials weren't necessarily huge in the grand scheme of things, but they were trials nonetheless and they were hard. Tonight after I finished writing in my journal, I flipped back to the beginning and was reading some of my past entries. I started writing in this particular journal in January. I was having a really hard time. A few of the entries are SLIGHTLY dramatic, and while I do admit I had a good laugh over them now nearly 4 months later, at the time what I was going through was really hard. As I lay reading in my bed, I thought about what had changed that got me from that point to now, when I really and truly am so happy. Not that I was unhappy before, I just was really struggling. I realized that there were so many things that got me through this particular trial. Phone calls to my mom where she just let me talk and...

Finals week usually stresses me out more than it should. I usually have several stress-induced break downs and am pretty miserable until it ends. I normally stress myself out over a grade that won't even matter to me anymore a week later. I don't know why, but I'm just not anywhere near as stressed this time around. Maybe now that this is my fourth finals week, I've learned a thing or two about putting things in perspective. Or maybe it's because so far, this finals week has had so many bright spots, that I have barely had times to be stressed! -I've had the chance to work a lot of extra hours! Which may not sound like a positive thing, but I honestly really love my job, mostly because I work with really great people and they make it fun! Yesterday, business was slow for a little while, so we played an intense game of I Spy. We basically all came up with the hardest things possible and it was great. It got really heated. My favorite part was when my co-worke...

Today was my last day of winter semester classes. Which means I have officially completed two years of college. Well technically there's still finals, BUT STILL it's crazy! It's strange, because it seems like time is flying, but at the same time I still feel so young! Which brings me to something that my D&C teacher told our class today that really hit home for me. She was talking about how we're in the phase of life where we have to make lots of important decisions, and as a result we put so much pressure on ourselves. I definitely have found that to be true in my life, ever since my senior year of high school when all of these decisions start to creep up on me. I find myself constantly questioning whether or not I'm doing enough and if I'm good enough. My teacher then went on to say that all we have to do is be righteous, and the Lord will guide us towards the plan he has for us. I felt a feeling of peace, and just knew that what she was saying is true.  L...

I can't believe that we only have two days left of classes, and then finals week begins! I get really stressed over tests to begin with, so basically finals week is a living nightmare for people like me. So far I've only had one stress-induced break down and it wasn't even over finals! It was actually because of this awful picture book project I had to do for one of my classes which was LITERALLY my worst nightmare because I'm LITERALLY the most artistically challenged person ever to walk this Earth, but I finished it this morning and I'm just so relieved! It turned out pretty well I think! As well as it could anyways, given my VERY limited abilities! I'm pretty proud of myself! Anyways, although I do have my guaranteed break down every time finals week approaches, after surviving 3 finals weeks, I've learned a thing or two about how to survive. 1. TAKE BREAKS. I'm one of those people that will literally push myself over the edge studying, but I've...

The first weekends of April and October are two of my favorite weekends of the year. We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spend two days listening to our prophet, his two counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and other leaders of our church address us in four two hour sessions. They instruct us on a wide variety of topics. This meeting is known as General Conference. One of the things that I love the most about Conference is the fact that I always learn something and always hear something that I need to hear. Sometimes it is an answer to a question, other times it is just a piece of doctrine that gives me peace and comfort. All of the addresses can be found here . Some of my favorite topics that were addressed a lot throughout the Conference were peace, the Atonement and light of Christ, and faith and obedience. I loved Elder Cook's talk about peace. In my short 19 years of life, I have found that all of my greatest sources of peace in my life have come t...

The past couple of weekends have been so great! It's so hard to believe that it's April already and the semester's almost over! I guess it means finals are approaching, but I'm trying not to think about that! Last weekend, I was able to go to Lisa's bridal shower! It was so much fun to catch up with the Herndon Ward girls! Lisa is going to make a beautiful bride! This past weekend was a blast! On Friday night I went to a dance/birthday party for some girls from my ward! Afterwards, a group of us went an 11:00 showing of The Host. Other than having to sit through the world's most terrifying preview, it was a blast! Check out how stinkin beautiful my friends are: On Saturday night, Alyssa, Kaylee, Austin and I went to The Wall in the Wilk and then bowling for only a dollar! It was awesome, and cheap! Two words that us college kids love to have in the same sentence!  Easter Sunday was absolutely fantastic! When I woke up, I immediately bolted...