My Simple, Happy, Beautiful Life

So I was listening to this song by Ingrid Michaelson, and it made me think of all the destinations that we plan for. We dream of destinations all the time. It all depends on our stage of life: getting a driver's license, graduating from high school or college, getting into grad school, getting married, buying first house, getting first job, having your first child, becoming a grandparent, retiring and lastly death. There are so many checkpoints that we have in our life. What do you do when are you waiting for that checkpoint? I was recently talking with a friend about planning your future as you start to approach graduating college. It is a scary point in life because you literally have the world in front of you. You have so many options and if you make the wrong decision, you have no one to blame except yourself. I have seen a attitude switch as I have moved to BYU. A lot of girls graduate single here, so I don't feel weird graduating single. I am okay If I graduate colleg...

I never thought I liked sports. I grew up with three brothers which means we watched a lot of sports. It seemed like sports was always on in our house. I am used to sports. I know the rules. At BYUI, I never watched sports because we never had college teams that competed. Yet, I like watching sports here at BYU. Maybe it is because of the teams, hot guys on the teams and social aspect. Yet, I find myself enjoying the games just because I like the sport. Crazy. I never thought I would enjoy sports. I was talking to my brother and he was giving me some dating advice. It was the night of the Slam Dunk Contest and my brother was asking me if I was going to watch it. He then told me this idea: Ask a guy if he is watching the slam dunk contest. If he isn't, then I can't marry him because he is not a fan of sports, if he is then make a date of it. That is my romantic brother who comes up with brilliant date ideas. So, to answer my question if I am a sports fanatic. I am not a fa...

So, I realized today something really sad. I am living my life through daydreams and wishes. "I want my future to be like this, so I am going to do this....". Not that I am saying you shouldn't work for your future, I am saying enjoy the present. If you have been wanting to do something, just do it. What is the purpose of waiting? I know I talk alot about dating, but we are at BYU, so we talk about it a lot. Stop daydreaming and actually go out there and talk to people. We dream about this perfect guy when we are just drifting. What kind of guy would want a girl who would just daydream and never progress? Stop worrying, start living. I need to work on this with meeting new people. I stopped talking to new people once I knew some people. That is bad though. I sometimes feel alone on the campus and then I realize that it is because I separate myself from people. How can I blame others for my own actions? I have also been thinking about something else. I wander do people...

I am laying here doing indexing and listening to of course, Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Then this song came up while I was indexing for WWII drafts in Missouri. My roommate, who is the family history guru, has had a good influence on me. One day, she was talking about how much love she had for these young men who went to war, knowing that most of them wouldn't come back. I was listening to this song and then I thought of what my rommate told me. I have never felt that much love for someone I didn't know. I was reading their name and then wandering about what they did in their life. Did they become a war hero? Did they come home from war and get married to their high school sweetheart? I have never had this emotional connection with indexing before, but today I realized that they are real people. When I am inserting people's names, ages, locations of birth and death, I am seeing a glimpse of someone. It just seemed like a wonderful moment where I made this connection between me...

I am in Rexburg for this weekend, and when I saw the Rexburg temple I felt like I was coming home again. I can't write about how Rexburg brings so many emotions and memories. Provo has been really good for me yet I just love this town. I could write a whole entire blog about how Rexburg has changed me and is a part of who I am. Anyways, my grandpa wanted help with some computer things and of course said I would try to help. And then he said his bread machine broke. If you know my grandpa, you will know that making bread is important to him. He makes homemade bread that is really good. He has created a special recipe. His bread machine should be working tomorrow, so he will be making bread. When I was in college here, he would invite me over to make bread so he could teach me his methods. I always intended to learn his methods but I always found a excuse. Now that I am staying here, I can't think of a better way to spend my three day weekend. I love bread. I love my grandpa. ...

I have been thinking about this analogy for a while now. I have spent a lot of time lately with starting to network for opportunities for research, jobs, and things I would look good on my resume. I need to do this in order to go to grad school. Yet, I noticed I can apply these networking strategies with dating. Through the process, I have spent a lot of my effort putting myself out there for future employer's. I then asked myself, am I putting myself out there in the dating scene? I think I have been doing a pretty good job but there is always room for improvement. Anyways, I think it's funny to see how similar these two things can work together. These are the similarities I have found with dating and job hunting: 1. They are both hard. It can be easy to find a wrong fit. I could work as a custodial early morning job and that could work. I could work this job and be happy but It may not be the best fit my specific time. Like dating, you could find a boyfriend/girlfriend...

I was thinking about how this wonderful holiday is coming up once again! I have only spent it one time with a boyfriend, and the rest I have been single. It really doesn't bother me that I am single on Valentine's Day when I think that I am only 20. I still have plenty of time! Do you want to know what I was doing last Valentine's Day? I worked, had a nice breakfast with my roomies, and watched my favorite thing in the world: Wishes. I think that was a pretty awesome Valentine's Day. Thinking back, a day in Magic Kingdom is always magical. My valentine's day won't be that magical because it probably will be full of homework and classes. Maybe, I will send some valentine's though. I might dedicate the whole day to Michael Buble music because that always makes me happy. My theme song for the day could be "Just haven't met you yet". I like this idea. What are your plans for valentine's day?

If you know me, you will know that school and receiving the top grades are important to me. And when I say, important I mean like sometimes life or death. I am trying to change and I am much better. In high school, I would cry over exams. I did a little bit in my freshman year, but I have learned that a C on a exam doesn't mean the end. I got a C on this easy Health Psychology exam that I didn't study for. Stupid. I think I am just mad at myself more than anything else. I thought I could get away without studying but apparently I can't. So, instead of being upset, I have a new solution. I will realize that I need to study and actually read the textbook. I used to be really good in school and read all the chapters. If I can get by with the minimum and not do that much work then I will do that. I used to be the exact opposite. I think I am shifting my priorities to socializing. Since I am in this new environment, I want to get to know new people. I think that the relation...

I think a lot of people of people don't truly understand the action part in faith. I am beginning to understand this and apply it in my life (like I said in my last blog post). Today was fast sunday, so I was thinking about my testimony. We learn about the gospel and learn about the words of Christ. After we learn the words of Christ, we should apply them and act upon the knowledge we have. The application and action part is the hardest thing about faith. It is so easy to say that we have a testimony of Christ but showing it through our actions shows a stronger testimony than words. I think the most important thing we can do in this life is to live what we believe. If we believe that meat is bad, then become a vegetarian and fully commit to living that lifestyle. Don't live your life partially. Like the hocky pocky, don't put only arm in, put both arms and shake them BOTH apart. I don't know if that makes sense, but lately I feel like I just need to live my life with st...

Looks like I will be staying in Provo until August..a unexpected move for sure! Do you want to know why? Of course you do :) I found a awesome research opportunity here where I will researching and analyzing data on Marriage Preparation Factors.  Additionally, I have training next week for other research assistant job this semester. I will be a working women with a job that is directed towards grad school and my major, that is on campus. Nothing better than that :) I am a happy women. All I can say is my hard work and emailing professors has paid off. Professors don't come to you unless you are really intelligent and outgoing, but if you are like me then you need to go out of your way and talk to them. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to find opportunities like this, but I was :) So just keep working hard and eventually you will find what you need. It is like the idea of stepping towards the darkness and the light being shown to you. That is what happened in my ...

We talked about sex identification today in my gender class. My teacher is really funny. She told us about a study in asking toddlers how they knew if they were a boy or girl, and they looked down. So here are some questions for you. How did you know what sex you are? Did you know because your parents dressed you in blue/ pink? Did they tell you what sex you are? Did you know because of your biological parts? Did you know because you were reinforced of certain behaviors? It is a interesting question to me. There are so many factors to how we know what sex we are. It is a interesting yet hard question to research because you can't isolate biology and environment. They interact together. It is something I never really asked myself today. We talked about transgender and people who can chose their gender. Have you heard of John Money? He is a psychologist who was convinced that when a child is young, they can raised a certain sex. There was a man whose penis was accidently burne...

I am going to write about the Conflict Mediation Process. I was a conflict mediator in High School and the process has helped me many times in my life. There are some basics that we must go over first. 1. When mediating conflict, the mediator must be neutral. 2. Individuals must be respectful of what others say and take turns talking. 3. Both sides must be willing to try to understand the other side. 4. Understand that it can be heated, so be prepared to intervene when needed. What is the process? Before the meeting, make time for both parties to have face to face meeting. 1. Establish Rules and basic outline of the meeting. 2. Allow one side of the story to be told. 3. Allow the opposing side of the story to be told. 4. Allow Joint Discussion with Supervision 5. Find solution for both parties. For solutions, It is hard to have a win-win solution. That will be rare because both parties might not want to work together. The most common solution is a compromise. You don...