My Simple, Happy, Beautiful Life

I had a good experience last night talking with a friend from high school. I had some struggles in high school. I never had serious struggles, but I definitely didn't have a perfect high school experience. By the time, I was a senior, I was ready to check out and move on with life. I was tired of drama and my classmates. I dealt with girl drama, sexual harrasement, a break-up, rejection from the college of my choice, difficult classes, personal insecurties, lonliness and self-image problems. I had a lot of good memories and true friends in high school as well, I just learned a lot last night. I learned that some people were talking behind my back and not saying very kind things about me. Why? I don't know. I never did anything to personally offend them. But, I think I realized that talk that you can't make everyone love you. I don't think those people meant to give me a hard time, if so then it's okay. We were in high school. High school is such a difficult time b...

I am currently in Zumba and I LOVE it. If anyone is looking for a fun and dynamic workout, do Zumba. The music is really positive and it keeps you going. We do different sets of songs each day and we work on different parts of our body. Today we did a swing workout, samba, merengue and salsa. Our teacher said we are going to do belly dancing next week. Yes, I am very excited to do belly dancing in zumba. And you should be excited to do it as well. So, if you have zumba around you, sign up. Even if you have to pay money to join the class, it will be worth the money. Plus, if you look like my zumba instructor, you will be fit. Fit and pregnant at age 45. Well, maybe not the pregnant part, but you will be fit. So, sign up today! I should get paid by zumba for advertising for them on this blog. Seriously, do it.

Guess what?  I did something great and productive tonight.  I started my social work graduate application.  I made a decision.  WOO HOO.  You know, it feels good to make a decision. Here it goes: I am not retaking the GRE. I don't have the time and the effort to put into studying for it. I could but I want to focus on other things right now. Today, while I was working my co-worker asked me about letters of recommendation. I sent out emails today and started asking for professors to write them. I made my resume short and concise. I read the requirements for the letter of statement for social work. I put all my educational experience and employment on the application. I checked to say that I would live the honor code. Yes, the social work application isn't due until January 15th,  but I feel like starting it early is a smart idea. I need to start collecting things so my application is perfect.  I want to take a year off but so...

One of my wonderful roommates from the spring would eat pesto and pasta daily. She had gone to Italy and so she loved pasta. She must of passed that down to me because I love pesto now. I bought my first little jar of pesto and have absolutely enjoyed eating that whole jar up. The thing is that it is delicious and you don't need to put that much on your pasta.  You know those experiences you have when you meet someone and then wonder how you survived without them your whole life. It's like your life was incomplete before you met them. Well, me either...but I feel like pesto has somewhat made my life complete. I love it. I put it on everything.  Somedays I am so excited to eat lunch because I know that I have pesto. I know that I can cook some yummy pasta with vegatables and top it off with my favorite pesto. My new favorite thing to do is have grilled cheese with pesto on it. I swear you can put everything with pesto.  This is why I am in love with pe...

You know how people are so ready to graduate and be done with college? I am terrified. Well, maybe not to that extreme. I am not following my life plan. I could, but the likelihood of it happening is not high. To show you why I am freaking out, I am confused about what I should do. I am still confused of whether Social Work or Marriage and Family Therapy is best for me. I have talked to so many people about this subject matter and have become informed of each program. I am leaning towards Marriage and Family Therapy but Social Work is great as well. I think I fit with Marriage and Family Therapy more. I won't do a full on comparison on this blog, but I have done this before. I am just scared. These are my main questions. Do I want to take a break and apply for graduate school after my break? I am scared that I won't find a job. There are many benefits for this option. I could stay in Provo and still love the social life and volunteer at agency that will help me gain better un...

So, we had a regional conference today where we talked about an analogy about dating. Here it is:  “The situation of a Church member who is single can be illustrated by a simple analogy. Imagine that your favorite hobby is stargazing and you’ve just joined a stargazing club. You come to your first club activity eager to participate. It’s a cold night, but you’re not concerned: most of the club members are wearing club jackets, and you’ve been told you should be able to get one as well. But there is no jacket for you. You ask about it, and you are told to keep looking and that if you do your best, you will find a jacket when the time is right. “Meanwhile, you are getting pretty cold and a little worried. And you notice that most of the other club members are talking about how nice and warm their jackets are. In fact, throughout the evening the topic surfaces continually in various forms: how to wash and dry your jacket, how to add extra pockets, how to mend it, and so forth....

I was looking at pictures and videos from this summer and I just laughed. Well, I watched the BYU vs Utah game and I was just confused. I was shocked and amazed and mad and angry. It was just a mixture of various emotions into one, so I decided to look back on my summer pictures. Which leads me to this post, what is the hardest and best kiss that you have ever worked for? This question entitles how much patience, waiting, courting, money you had to put into getting a kiss or giving a kiss to someone. Everyone has good kiss stories. We don't need to share them publicly on blogs because some of them are more embarrasing, but every person's first kiss or kiss sometime in their life is great. Well to answer my own question, I will give you a picture first. Me and my best friend are trying to kiss my other best friend. I am straight, I just want to point it out in case people wondered. From my other posts, i talk about cuddling with my best friend, we are straight. Now that we g...

As a psychology major, you learn about gender issues and sexism. My psychology of gender teaches with a very feminist view. I love learning from her just because her view is different than mine. Recently, I have learned about men's studies. It is a recent discipline of study. The feminist and men's studies movement have altered psychology beliefs and marriage and family therapists training. As a marriage and family therapist, it is important to learn about these gender issues. I think even if you are not a marriage and family therapists, it is a interesting and valuable thing to learn about. Men's studies deal with gender roles. Recently, females have started developing careers in male-oriented jobs. It is becoming more acceptable. Although pay isn't equal yet, it is becoming more equal as women's studies have advocated for equality. Women's role have changed significantly. Women can become mother's or become a full time worker. They have more freedom in d...

One thing that I have learned in college is the importance of putting yourself in the right place and right time. The first thing you need to do is find your priorities and goals. If your goal is to become the best seamstress, then put yourself in places with a sewing machine. How are you supposed to become one of the best if you don't have a sewing machine to practice on? If you want to date more, put yourself in places where people you want to date are. If you want to lose weight, put yourself in the produce section of the grocery store or in the gym. Tonight, I had a nice preview of what grad school would be like. I had my video training for watching enactment (couple-centered) videos. I was surrounded by the professor I want to work with in grad school, first year graduate students and my graduate research assistant. We are working on a therapy process research project where we code therapy sessions and analyze them. We talked in depth about therapy processes and attachment t...

Do you doubt that one person can change the world? Do you doubt that one day can change the world? I see no reason to doubt this belief. When I think about September 11, 2001, I think of all the change that occured from one day. It was a day full of devastating events for friends and family members that were killed or injured. I remember waking up and my mom telling me something horrible happened. I truly didn't understand why it was important. I was in 5th grade, so I didn't understand the significance. I think I finally started to understand in high school when I met my friend Shabnam. She told me about her life and she seemed so similar to me. She was muslim and she had similar religious standards to me. I could only see how she was similar to me. I didn't understand how people would treat her differently.  They treated her like she was the enemy sometimes. I remember airport security becoming more strict. People started complaining because they had to minimize their...

Yes, I cuddled lots this weekend. Although you may think that it was with a boy, I will tell you that it was with my best friend who is not a boy. We had a fun filled weekend of laughter, bonding, swimming, not sleeping, and talking. Let me start with the beginning, I went with some friends and we went to my best friends house in Rexburg, ID. When me and my friends ( I don't care about the grammar) get together we are loud. We are loud and we know it. We ended up talking late that night. The next day we went to the lava hot springs. I have never been there, but It was a blast. The sign said 50% chance of rain and that there were was no refund. It did end up raining, but we waited until the rain ended. It is funny how small things can make you so happy. They had these high platforms, slides and rock climbing wall. They had lots of "fancy" toys, but our favorite toy was this floating turtle. We played lots of games on this turtle including: how many people can we fit on the...