paper break

"Embrace each day with an enthusiastic welcome!" - Elder F. Enzio Busche

Yeah, I needed that today. Yes, it is in fact 1:47 in the morning and yes, I am still awake and sitting at my kitchen table writing a paper (well, technically taking a break from writing a paper at the moment).
But you know what? I'm thrilled. Life is awesome. I get to be in college right now... do you know how many people would love to be where I am right now but can't for some reason or another?
I am blessed. Everyone is blessed; you just have to take a step back and recognize the blessings. This day will be good... because I'm alive, and if that's the best thing I can find to say about some days in my life, then it's fine because that is still incredible.
Life should be filled with enthusiasm. Always.

Midnight.

I love midnight premiers of movies.
I always have. And I don't see that changing at any point in time.
The atmosphere in the theater is spectacular for midnight movies. Every person in that theater is passionate enough about the film to have stayed up so late and possibly stayed in line for hours just to be watching it right then. So they care. They are excited. They are slightly sleep deprived. All of these factors make them way more exciting than the average movie audience.
In midnight premiers, people cheer for everything. People are more apt to scream, laugh, and cry. When the good guy prevails, mass hysteria and joy ensues.
Also, the costumes. I know I've expressed my love for dressing up more than once before, but I LOVE dressing up in costumes more than anything! (okay, that was a bit of a exaggeration, but I tend to do that.) The extra passionate people dress up as characters in the movie especially if it's based on a book, tv series, comic, or is a sequel. I am typically, if not always, one of those passionate people.
The current midnight premiers that I'm most looking forward to are The Hobbit and Les Miserables!!! Both in December, and I can not wait! Don't worry, I will definitely be dressing as one of the dwarves. Unless, of course, I can convince someone to let me borrow their Gandalf costume (coughNatecough).
SO EXCITED!
My roommate may or may not have purchased 30 tickets to the midnight premier of The Hobbit... yeah, you heard right:
30
Even more impressive, all 30 have already been claimed. This is going to be rockin! An entire two rows of friends watching an incredible movie with us!

Recap of the birfday.

So I had a birthday last week, right? Well, let me tell you: that was one of the best birthdays I've had in a very long time. I think a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that it was a Friday. A lot of it was also because I have the best friends, family, and coworkers in the world.
My roommates brought me out of my room at midnight, as soon as it was my birthday and gave me gifts.

This is when I opened The Lord of The Rings Collectors Edition Pez Dispensers!!! You may not know my love for pez dispensers, but I definitely have an obsession there and this was the best edition to it ever. Favorite part? That the hobbits, Gimli, and Gollum are shorter than everything else. Bahahaha! THIS was a great gift from my roommate KayJoy.

Then my family came and took me to lunch that day. It was rockin. We went and Pita Pit it up and they are hilarious and wonderful. These are the two youngest of the brosephs - love them: 

Then my writing class was fun and they gave me treats, it was like I was in elementary again! :) And then one of my lovely friends took me out to dinner and even talked the waiter into bringing me a free eclair! And finally, that night was the beginning of the celebration of Halloween. I was Scary Spice and we fake party-hopped... I saw one of my VERY best friends of all time for the first time since he's been home from his mission! I was so so so happy! And then we went to multiple different dance parties that were lame and ended up just throwing our own in the living room. It was perfect. Seriously, I love birthdays. I love the extra attention that comes to you on your birthday and I love friends and gifts. SO GOOD! I'm 22!

All hallows eve.

Seriously, Halloween is my favorite thing ever. People are SO funny and clever. I love dressing up in costumes and playing an entirely new character. You can be anyone or anything you want, and it gives you a fun way of expressing yourself. Or not. Here is a list of some of the best costumes I saw yesterday around campus:
Judith Butler - know who she is? I didn't either. She's a feminist philosopher. And my co-worker dressed like her and he looked awesome.
A surprising number of Ash Ketchums
Squirtle
Snowman - this costume was so legit. The costume was a solid 7-8 feet tall and made of wool or something on chicken wire. The kid was just waddling around campus and it was so cool.
PSY - a couple of him. Some Asian men thought they were hilarious.
Miranda Sings - some very solid portrayals
All 5 original Power Rangers and they were fighting a guy in a banana suit. SO GOOD.
All sorts of Batmans. I particularly liked the one on his bicycle with his cape flowing.

I personally had three costumes this year. I was planning on having 4, but the penguin didn't actually work out... definitely next year. Last Friday, I was Scary Spice - with none of the other Spice Girls. I didn't get many pictures of this one. But here's the one we got (with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and a nerd)

During the day yesterday, I was my roommate Jenna. Terrifying resemblance? I thought so too.

Then last night I was a grandma by the name of Fanny Lever. I was a crotchety old woman; I don't know how to do a jolly grandma. And yes, my hair did smell like baby powder all night.

All in all, this was an incredibly successful Halloween. I love dance parties and friends and candy and costumes and fun. How perfect.

Celebration.

22.
That's a palindrome.
It is also my age as of today.
Weird.

I'm glad I was born.

No words.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So please just appreciate what the following say about my roommates.

Yeah, I kind of love them and stuff. No big deal. Oh and they're hilarious. And some of the best people I have ever met. Don't be jealous, though I wouldn't blame you.

I have come to the realization that I've reached that ripe point in my life where I am one of the older girls on campus. Let me tell you, I am not a fan. When I moved into my apartment complex, I looked at the girls who had been here 3 years and thought, "Wow! They are so old! I will never be boring like that when I'm a senior"
Well, look around folks. The time has come. I am a senior! In college! And don't worry about it, this is my third year living in the same apartment complex. I've become the old one! I'm approaching 4 years in this blasted place called Provo (I really do like Provo most of the time, occasionally however I just have moments of slight madness because I live in the bubble).
But you know what? Yesterday I received reassurance that I absolutely have not become one of the boring individuals that I so desperately feared becoming. My roommates and I are ridiculous. We do crazy things. We are hilarious and keep the neighbors up some nights because were laughing so hard and we are just complete entertainment for everyone, including ourselves.

The world didn't change, I changed.

I've learned a lot this past week or two. I may have fallen behind in my school work and not paid enough attention in classes, but life lessons have been learned, and sometimes it's okay for the other things to fall by the wayside for a bit.

I made a friend recently who has changed my view of world. He has taught me through his example what it means to be completely committed to your values and your standards. A lot of the people that I am surrounded by in my life know what is right and do it because that's what you do... not to say that they don't believe and are amazing people, it's just that they have never had to question their motives for the way they live their lives. But my friend has had to change his life around, and he has completely thought through every thing he does and consciously made the choice to live the way that he does. He has made me question WHY in pretty much every aspect of my life, and I've learned so much about myself. I can't rely on any other person to reason away my actions. I have come to KNOW what I believe and understand how those beliefs relate to my actions... Yeah, my whole perspective and approach to life has changed a bit. I'm loving it.

Also, I've been trying to understand and accept the Lord's timing in my life. Sometimes I just don't understand why I can't just know right now what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go in my life instead of trying to figure it out along the way. Things happen in life that are so frustrating and disheartening, and it's hard to see the purpose behind them. So I've been trying recently to just accept that I don't know everything and that God does. He has a plan for me, and it might not make sense to me right now, but it makes perfect sense to God and that it is just what I need. Having faith in His hand in my life and His love for me is what will help me to get through trials. Here's a video that we watched in my Living Prophets class yesterday and it was just what I needed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMwKxmTLaCs

"Don't demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement." Yes, yes, yes. Amen. Hallelujah. The End.

On October and what not.

Don't worry about it. October is my favorite month of the entire year. Fall colors are in full brilliance. My birthday. Football is just rockin all month long. Social acceptance of wearing costumes for an entire month straight. I always commend dressing like a complete fool. Halloween is one of the greatest holidays. October is just festive and smells good and I just can't handle how wonderful it is.

Oh yeah, and my new favorite color is orange. And orange is the color that epitomizes October.

I am so excited for my birthday and Halloween this year! Mostly Halloween. I have so many solidly good costume ideas; most center around the fact that my hair is huge and curly. I've taken advantage of that and dressed as Professor Trelawny way too many years in a row, and it is now time to expand my costume repertoire. I want some input on which costume I should choose, here's some of my current favorites.

Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus

Bellatrix Lestrange (I've done this before, but not for Halloween, and it was one of my favorite costumes ever)

Scary Spice - this would definitely be part of a roommate Spice Girl costume 

Pocahontas (I only want this one because she's my favorite. Let's get real, I look nothing like her.)

Any other ideas of what I should be for Halloween this year? Let's be serious here, I will probably end up choosing multiple costumes and hitting up a bunch of different Halloween parties! Work it!

Halfway there.

9 months have come. 9 months left to go. Here in the middle of things, I appreciate experiences more than I used to. Also, I can even almost see the end. That's thrilling.

Let's just see how the next 9 months turn out. Should be interesting.

Growth.

Alright, here's the deal: I've learned SO MUCH in the last 6-9 months or so. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had such a defining half year in my entire life.
There have been so many events, both big and small, that have changed me and changed my life. Here's just a few of the things I have learned in 2012:

• No matter how far away they are or how long we go without speaking, my best friends will still always be there for me
• Missions are awesome
• It is so hard to have those I'm closest with leave on missions, but I wouldn't have them anywhere else in the world right now
• I am loved.
• I am not perfect, and that's okay
• It's more important to be humble than hilarious (though there is nothing wrong with also being hilarious)
• I love hearing mission stories
• How to ask for help and advice
• Love is not something that I can control. But if I allow it, I have the capacity to love everyone.
• The importance of studying
• How to be more open with others
• Being vulnerable is not a sign of weakness
• I have to rely on the Lord for my confidence; I can't rely on myself.
• Fear is not something that belongs in my life.
• Hiding my thoughts and feelings does not benefit anyone.
• I am surrounded by the best, most inspirational examples and it is the biggest blessing I could have right now.

Acceptance.

I'm a nerd. We all know this already. However, my coworkers have not been exposed to exactly how big of a nerd I am. So I've been working at the same place for a year and a half and they still do not fully understand the extent of my nerdiness. It's not that I have been hiding the truth about me, I just tend to not talk too much when I'm at work, because well, I'm working. But this summer was an eye opening experience for them, as I was much louder than usual work Jennie.

But first, one of the best things anyone has ever said to me: "Jennie, I like you. You are just so passionate about some of the most random things. And you're not ashamed. You just love them so much."
My old roommate said this to me. I was thrilled. And I think that describes me perfectly. I find things that I love and then I ship them so hard to everyone around me. I find so much joy in being passionate about my nerdy tv shows, movies, and books. When I find something new to love, I just get so excited. I mostly blame my relatives for this, from the time I was born, my uncles have been exposing me to "culture." We all share the same nerdy love of the same movies and such. We go on quoting sprees and laugh our heads off. Yeah, I blame them for this.

Here's a brief list of some of my favorite things of which I am very passionate: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, my pez dispenser collection, Avatar: The Last Airbender, flannel, The Office, Weezer, ugly sweaters from DI, and most fantasy series' - I love magic, sword fights, castles, mythical creatures, etc. Yes, nerd. And my most recent nerdy addiction: Dr. Who. Oh how I love British humor.

Alright, now that you are fully aware of my complete nerdiness, I can get on with the story.

So I was at work last week and we were closing up the office a few hours early to go set up for our department opening social. Our boss told us to go close the door and tell anyone trying to get through that it is shut. My coworker, who I definitely should have pegged as a LOTR fan started walking toward the door and said: "The way is shut."
My head involuntarily whipped up to grin at him, and I immediately and mostly involuntarily said,
"It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it." 
For those of you uncultured readers out there, this is a quote from the third and final LOTR movie. About half of those in office had no idea what I was saying and the other half just stared open mouthed because they had not expected that from me. I just smiled and kept going about my business like normal... like I hadn't just revealed myself as the biggest LOTR nerd in the world. I was thrilled.

It begins again.

The summer has come to an end. A terrible, tragic end. I have a feeling that this next year is going to be a relatively defining one for me. You know, with the whole "graduating from college and finding something to do with my life" thing. It's kind of terrifying.

This summer has been one of the best in the history of summers (which is a pretty long history, in case you were wondering). We created a list back in the first of May of all the things we wanted to do this summer. I must say that I am please to announce that we did EVERYTHING on this list, minus white water rafting, which I was fine with because that slightly frightens me. We took a road trip to California (one of the highlights of my summer), saw all of the awesome movies that came out this summer, ate lots of delicious food, made some incredible friends, went on lots of adventures, took pictures of most everything, and just laughed our heads off because we are that funny. We really had so much fun! I really do have the greatest friends in the universe.
As just an example of the excitement that is our lives: the other weekend, we watched 7.5 hours of Anne of Green Gables in one night. I can't explain to you the love that I have for Gilbert Blythe.

Anyway, so now it's over. On the plus side, everyone has returned to Provo, including pretty much all of my friends who went on missions. Can you believe it's been two years? I can't. I am THRILLED beyond reason to be able to hang out with those wonderful human beings again. They were greatly missed.

Ok, here's the real reason this year scares me: I am a senior. A senior in college. Remember back in the day, a full 4 years ago when I was a senior in high school? That does not feel like it was that long ago, but alas, it was. WHat am I going to do after I graduate? I have many potential plans, but they all require me to be an adult and move on with my life. Change, especially big change like this, scares me so much. Once I get going, I love it, but the anticipation of change scares me to death. Welp, we'll see what happens in this next year. It will be fun, that's a given because I always have fun. It will be difficult. It will be scary. But I'm excited for it. Life is fun... I just have to keep telling myself that.

Olympian

So there's this amazing thing called the Olympics. And it's kind of taken over my entire life. This is terrible timing for 2 reasons.
1- The two weeks of olympic excitement are also the last week of classes and finals week for summer term.
2- I work in the afternoons, and thus I miss a lot of olympic action. I hate being an adult.

Every 2 years the world has the amazing privilege of coming together peacefully and competing in historic athletic events. We get to watch the best of the best in the world perform in their specific events and there is no one else in the world that can do it better than them. That is incredible to me. It is also incredible that all the countries in the world can come together and be in complete peace regardless of the events and arguments and even wars that occurring throughout the world. We, as human beings, have a sense of tradition and a desire for peace that is unequaled. I love the olympics for this reason and a hundred more.

I can never decide whether I like the summer or the winter olympics better. They are both so wonderful and have these incredible sports. Every four years we get to see the summer olympics, specifically some of the best volleyball playing in the world. I will play volleyball in the olympics, I've been saying this with my best friend for years and years, but it will happen. Rio 2016: Lever and Maeda beach volleyball champions. Can't wait.
If I were to be in the winter olympics, I think I would want to be on a four-person bobsled team. How sweet would that be? Maybe something a little like Cool Runnings. Yeah, that's definitely my second goal, incase the volleyball playing doesn't pan out.

The olympics inspire me and I am left in awe of the talent and the hard work and the athletes. Let's just take a step back sometimes and acknowledge the amazingness that is humanity.

The time has come.

There is a time in everyone's life when she just has to throw on some sweats and a tie-dye t-shirt, throw her untamable hair on top of her head, listen to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, find a cozy corner of the library, and buckle down and write her term paper.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is that day.

Parade people.

I know I say my family is the best a lot, but I only speak the truth.
We are a type of people that you might not have encountered in your life, at least not at our level.
We are parade people. Weird, I know. But that's what we do.

I've grown up always going to parades and I didn't realize that this wasn't normal until I was in high school. I also didn't realize that it wasn't normal to lose your voice every time you go to a parade. You see, we cheer for EVERYONE that passes by, whether or not they are interesting or even in the parade. I mean, we cheer our lungs out for the little kids pulling the wagons and selling popsicles just as much as we cheer for the scottish pipe band or the sweet floats.

And when I say my family, I mean my WHOLE family. This is a lot of people. It's not surprising when we have a solid 40 people there on the street with us at any given parade. Uncle Frank is always shouting in the back with his wooden noise-maker that makes us all deaf. There's some specific cousins that I can always rely on for witty, hilarious comments shouted at the floats, particularly those with the pretty girls on them. The youngest brother pulls some ridiculous dance moves in the middle of the street  in the long spaces between floats. It's just plain fun.

July is prime time for parades. The Pioneer Day/24th of July/Days of 47 Parade is the ultimate of all parades. For 35 years my family has been going to downtown Salt Lake on the night of the 23rd and setting up camp on the street to save our spot for the parade in the morning. Sleeping out for the parade is my favorite extended family tradition. Like, we legitimately sleep on the streets.

Lay the blankets out in the gutter, and then party all night. We play all sorts of games, we talk, we laugh our heads off, we walk about down town. And we don't sleep. Some people try to sleep, but aren't particularly successful.
This year was a strange one at the parade for me. For one, I was missing some brothers. Ryan is on a mission. And Kade was at scout camp. Also, just lot's of other relatives weren't there. On the positive side: I brought friends. This was a new experience for them and I was thrilled. Sadly, they thought it was a good idea to go to sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning. Luckily, my cousin, Jason and I remained stalwart and stayed up the entire night, talking about absolutely nothing and it was hilarious. We were unashamedly the only one's that did not sleep a wink, though Jason did sleep through the entire parade, but that was to be expected.
So this years' parade can be marked off as another supreme success. I got zero sleep, cheered my lungs out for all 120+ parade entries (particularly the BYU float which contained my good friend and future roommate, Jessica), and just had the time of my life.
I love being parade people.

Phoneless.

Let me tell you a funny little story:

Once upon a time I went to California and it was awesome.

My phone decided that it just loved California so much that it was going to stay for an extended vacation. Much more extended than my own trip.
Yes, you heard right. I have been without my phone for about 11 days now.
How did my phone get left behind in California, a solid 12 hour drive away?  Well, I certainly did not forget it... it just happend to get stuck in an unlocked house. I know, this just keeps getting more and more ridiculous. I realized that I had left my phone in the house we were staying at and luckily we had left the front door unlocked, so I went to go open it and much to my horror, the door wouldn't budge. Something was wrong with the handle and it just plain wouldn't open. We worked on it for a solid 15 minutes, with no success. So I had turn my back on my poor phone, leaving it in an unlocked house. The poor dear.

I didn't realize how much my everyday life revolves around the quick messages that phone provides to me. I am constantly talking about my plans later that day with my roommates or deciding where to meet someone or answering quick, simple questions via text. Not to mention the fact that I call my mom everyday. And my phone keeps me in contact with my lovely friends that I don't get to see very often. I bash on our culture's extreme dependence on cell phones sometimes, but let's get real, they really do help and can be a good thing. However, it's been a bit of a blessing in my life not have a phone. Though I haven't thought so the entire time.
This is my process of emotions since the loss of my phone: Frustration, Relief, Freedom, Annoyance, Irritation, Acceptance. Yes, I think that portrays exactly how the last week has gone for me.

Here are some things I've learned while I have been without a phone:

• Who the most important people in my life are. Even when I don't have a phone, I still find a way to talk to the most important people.
• My roommates are amazing. They put up with my borrowing their phones all the time.
• Patience. In a world full of fast-paced, at your finger-tips information and answers, I have had to learn to be patient. When I need to ask some one something, I have to wait until the next time I see them or when they answer my email, it is not an immediate response, and it is ok.
• To listen and observe. I always call my mom when I'm walking across campus, and if I'm not talking to her, I'm probably texting someone. Not being able to do that has allowed me to enjoy the beauty that is Provo and has given me more chance to look around and better observe the fascinating people that I am surrounded by everyday.
• Facebook gets really old really fast. I've been relying a lot on fb messages to talk to people, but now I am so sick of fb. It's not even funny.
• Simplification. Technology overwhelms my life. I sit at a computer all day at work, I am always using my laptop to take notes or do assignments or catch up on tv shows or really do most anything, I listen to my iPod, I always have my phone with me. It gets to be too much sometimes. So it's been incredibly nice to take a break from at least one aspect of technology and kind of simplify my life.
• To take a deep breath. This could have been an incredibly upsetting situation to not have my phone, and at times it was, but overall I learned to just take a step back, breath, and reassess the situation and realize that it's fine. True, I don't have communication right at my finger tips at all time, but it's ok and I can make it work.

Overall, I'm thrilled that this happened. It's not very often that one can take such an extended break from their phone, and it has truly been a blessing. I know it sounds like something really small and dumb, but I really did learn so much from not having a phone! But I must admit, it will be SO nice to get it back and be able to communicate with the rest of the world again.


Side note - 
Talking about phones just reminded me of a sweet little tune you may be familiar with (this does not actually apply to my life at this very moment in time): 
Call me, beep me, if you want to reach me. 
When you want to page me, it's ok. 
Whenever you need me, baby 
Call me, beep me, if you want to reach me.

Velcro

My hair is velcro. And this is serious business.

True story: the other day while studying in the library, my earring fell out of my ear and I realized that it was because the back had fallen off. I searched around and around and couldn't find the back of this earring and just chalked it up to yet another lost earring back in my life. It was sad, but I wasn't too heart broken about it, at least I still had the earring. THEN seriously 5 hours later, I'm sitting at work and pull my hair back into a ponytail. I felt something and asked myself: What is this strange, hard, hidden object in my hair? Oh look, it's the BACK OF MY EARRING! How did this happen?! How had it not fallen out while walking all across campus and being my normal flailing self and just daily flying about that my hair goes through?

Answer: My hair is velcro. I don't even need pockets anymore, I'll just stick all of my belongings up in my hair and it will be fine.
This is a great plan.

Roommates

Sooo I have these people in my life called roommates. Mine are kind of the greatest in the entire world. I have always been blessed with AMAZING roomies. Always.
This is the original six of us:

The freshman roommates. Kaylee, Alyse, Andee, Mandy, and Kendra. We were together through so much and were best friends. I could take an entire blog post, scratch that, any number of blog posts to recount our adventures together that year. It's not often you get 6 girls randomly thrown together that just bond and get along as well as we did. We were CRAZY back then (not that we aren't still crazy). We were together through half of sophomore year too. Then Kaylee went to London, and Michelle moved in. That was lovely. Here we are:

Then this past year, Kaylee returned to us. Mandy decided marriage was probably a good idea. And Alyse went off for some new, wonderful experiences... but let's get real, she's still practically a roommate! But that semester I was blessed with the experience of having new roommates, something that I hadn't really gone through in my two years of college experience. There were four of the originals and I was again blessed with great new roommates. Krystal and Amber thought we were insane at first. Let's be serious, they were terrified. But they learned to love us. I adore those girls with all my heart. Here we are:

The next semester, we had a plethora of sister missionaries. Kendra and Krystal both left us to go serve the Lord in Phoenix and Tokyo. I love them. And so we got two new roommates. Kate and Kellie. I love them both. Let me tell you, Kate is the most outrageous, wonderful, silly girl I know and I cherish that semester I got to spend sharing a room with her! She's engaged now, which is thrilling. Sadly, I don't think we ever got a picture of all of us together. But here's Kate, she's great. Though this picture is not so much:

And now it comes to the current arrangement of roommates. There's me, Kaylee, and Andee. We've been roommates for three, going on four years and it's been complete madness nonstop! And we've added three of the most adorable females I've ever encountered. Jenna, Halie, and Cebre. This is 5 of the 6 (Cebre was with her fiance, a noble excuse if I do say so myself.):

I love these girls more than you can know. We've only all lived together for a couple months, but we've bonded deep and it's been fantastic. Halie is currently rocking the piano in Italy, and I miss her immensely, but she'll be back in a couple weeks. And this is us all on our last day all together as roommates. Now Cebre is all married and the like and Terra is moving in any moment! I'm thrilled!

So there you have it, folks. All of the roommates I've ever been blessed with, and it seriously has been a blessing. I've never had a roommate I didn't absolutely adore. I have learned so much from them and they've helped me to grow. And I am still best friends with all of them. They accept my crazy and they bring some crazy of their own. This is why I love them. Every single one of them.

California. Here we come.

I do cool things in my life. Like take awesome road trips to Northern California.

I seriously have the best friends in the world. And we had more fun in those 5 days than most people have in a full year. We left Tuesday night, right after work and got back to good old Provo Sunday night. 4 solid days in California.

The initial reason we went on this road trip was to go see the wedding of dear Cebre and Hiram Jacob. And the wedding was INCREDIBLE. On top of that, we made it a full on vacation. We celebrated our nation's independence by watching many firework shows through the beautiful fog in Santa Cruz. We spent an entire day in San Francisco. We bon fired at the beach. We made more memories and inside jokes than I can count.

I love those girls more than anything. It was the 4 of us girls: Kaylee, Kaylee, Jenna, and Jennie. Yeah, we confused everyone that we met. And is was great! I learned so much about myself while talking to these girls this week, and I think we all reached a new level of crazy. Upon calculating it, we spent more than 36 hours in the car over that 5 day span, so it's a good thing I like these girls. We kind of took up some usual spots in the car. I drove. Most of the time. Jenna directed me. We sometimes got lost, but overall, she directed me exceptionally well. And the Kaylee's sat in the back. They cuddled, they slept, and they kept us entertained. We had a pretty good system set up. I was a pretty big fan of it. I really do love driving.

We stayed at Terra and Cebre's house the first night. We were SO excited to see them!

Best part of all of San Francisco: Tandem biking across the Golden Gate Bridge! It seriously was the most fun thing I've done in my whole life. It took me and Kaylee a couple of blocks to get the hang of it. Let's get real, those first few blocks were completely terrifying and we screamed our heads off and were plenty of free entertainment to our fellow tourists. But by the end, we were pros. And once we got to the bridge, we ate PB&Js in the middle of the GGB. It was so cool!

We went to China Town. It was radtastic. And I bought awesome things: a glow-in-the-dark Buddah, a mustache ring, and a wooden sword. I realized that I find great joy in incredibly random objects.

We went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, this adorably quaint town full of little shops and cute things. With a beach.
We went to a giant bon fire on the beach. And we wore our matching tourist San Francisco sweatshirts. That beach was beautiful. And the surfers were exciting.

Then we weddinged it up on Saturday. This is us and the beautiful bride. It doesn't get much better than this. Cebre and Hiram are so lovely and happy and perfect for each other.

Summing up the trip: We maimed the schmeagle Jack.

Selfish

Sometimes I can be selfish. I get so caught up and focused on myself and forget to think about other people. Today I was reminded that it is not all about me.

I am surrounded by people. Every single one of them has a story and joys and trials. And here at school, every single one of them is worrying about school and passing their classes and trying to not die under all the pressure. While it is very important for me to focus on school and getting my education and good grades, it is also important for me to reach out and help others realize that they are fabulous and important. Obviously I can't meet every person in the world, or even on this campus, but I can start with those that live around me, in my building.
Honestly, I know that my life is not the most important.

Real Learning.

"Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers.  Learning is not a spectator sport.  Students must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives.  They must make what they learn part of themselves."  (Chickering and Gamson, Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education)

The truth of this quote is irrevocable.

Learning is an action word.

And honestly, it's hard to learn correctly. Sitting passively and memorizing facts only to forget them as soon as the test is over is easy. Real learning, the kind where the student must take it upon themselves to learn and apply said learning and retain it forever. This type of learning is hard. It takes a lot of time. It takes patience and work and interest and focus.
Sadly, I can't say I've always tried to really learn in some of my classes. There are times when I want to take the easy way out and just memorize facts and pass tests. I have been in some very difficult classes where the teacher recognized what real learning is and made assignments that catered to it... and I have complained because they were too hard. But in the end, those are the classes that I appreciate and remember the most. And learned the most from.
When I am forced to discuss my learning and look at it in the context of my life and other situations in the world, then I can see it as something real. Something important. Something worth knowing.
The purpose of going to school and getting an education is to be knowledgable and know things for the rest of my life. Disappointingly, a lot of people view school and learning as just something that they need to get through and finish as soon as possible so as to graduate and move on to their career or the next part of their life. They don't take the time to sit back and appreciate the opportunity that they have to be learning. Not many people in this world have that same opportunity. Learning is a blessing, not a pointless task. Learning is an action and it is something that should certainly not just stop at graduation. Learning is a lifelong and applicable to all situations.

I love learning. I love gaining the ability to speak intelligibly on many topics. I love expanding my horizons and developing new ways of viewing the world and other peoples. I love taking the opportunity to incorporate my learning into who I am.

I need to remember this. Learning is not a spectator sport.

The day of the fathers.

Yesterday was Fathers Day. And lets get real, it was sublime! My father is most certainly the best ever.
Here we are back in my heyday.

Here we are in more recent times.

We are both insane. I blame him for my crazy.
And for my friendliness/outgoing ridiculousness.
And for my need to explain every detail of every little step when teaching something to others.
And for my positive outlook on life.
And for my ability to work hard toward a goal.
And for the high standards that I hold all boys to, because I'm not settling for anything less than the best.
Yeah, I blame my dad for a lot of things. And I think he would appreciate the blame for at least most of them.

My dad has taught me a lot of things. At times he's taught me too many things, but in all seriousness, I have since learned a great appreciation for everything he's ever taught me.

Camping.

I like the summer in Provo. Life is much more laid back and enjoyable than during the school year. Also, people are just more fun. Well, maybe that's not true, but probably.

So.. we went camping. Last Friday.
Yeah, that was sweet.
We set up a tent and everything.
Not that we actually slept in the tent.
No, we ended up just sleeping in the bed of the truck, looking up at the stars slash the tree we were parked under.
But it was a blast. I adore camping excessively.
Being out in nature, exploring, adventuring, and just soaking it in is the best.
I went exploring along the stream and it was beautiful. I could explore nature all my life. I found the perfect thinking perch. And I might have fallen and sacrificed my leg in order to reach said thinking perch. My leg is still achey now, a few days later, but it was totally worth it. When you find that prefect spot for thinking, it absolutely can not be beat.
We also had smores.
You might ask: Some more what?
You're killing me Smalls!!
And there was lots of campfire fun and stories and chats and singing.
We played a lot of the song game.
We swung on swings.
We played some wongo-bongo.
We just enjoyed life.

Friends are awesome. Especially good friends, and I have a lot of those. And I love camping. I would go every weekend if I could. And surprise! I'm going again this weekend.
Like I said, I like the summer. It's weird to not be at home. This is my first summer not being at home ever in my life. Good thing I live close enough to go visit those crazy young chaps. But am glad that I'm here in Provo this summer.

They are wed.

Marriage is a topic of much conversation around me at this point in my life. Lots of things contribute to the excessiveness of this marriage-speak: my age, the fact that I'm not on a mission, the university I go to, having one of my best friends get married last week, having an engaged roommate. It all culminates to just too much sometimes.

Sharesa got married last Friday. She is one of my best friend from high school and one of my closest friends to have gotten married thus far. It's such a strange thing. But good. She was beautiful. And she's in love. And Ian adores her. I am a fan of all of these things. She deserves the best.
I love when I go to my friends weddings or I see them with their fiance or with their spouse and they are just happy. There is something about this inexpressible happiness that I love and everyone deserves to have it.

Also great: cute old houses. These can often come with marriage as well. My lovely roommate, Cebre, is getting married in a month and 2 days (not that we're counting) and I went and saw her new house yesterday. It is adorable. Seriously, there is something about cute, old houses that is just super romantic and fun and joyous. We were running and galavanting about her house exclaiming over it's beauty and it's homeyness. She has a parlor. A PARLOR. And a window seat and windows that swing open and must be latched closed. They have a fireplace, a red accent wall, a kitchen that doesn't need to be shared with anyone else. Maybe I've just been living with 5 other girls for too long, but having your own kitchen sounds like heaven. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway: I want her house. Or at least it's equivalent. SO cute. Honestly, it reminded me of the house I lived in in Ohio, maybe that's why I loved it so much. But mostly I think it's because of the romantic, old house feeling that is in every corner of that home.

So basically, lots of my friends are getting married and living in cute places and I am so happy! They are lovely human beings and I love that they are in love. Life is good. (This here song just came on. It was kind of eerie how perfectly timed that was.)

So You Think You Can Dance?

So there's this show that I love. It's called So You Think You Can Dance. And is you might recall, I"m incredibly obsessed. Seriously, I wish it aired throughout the entire year, because I could never get sick of watching these incredibly talented people push the limits of their bodies and their dance abilities. True, it often happens that there are lots of so-so dances, but every once in a while you get these amazing dances, and that makes watching the mediocre ones completely worth it. These amazing dances are the perfect combination of musical genius, skilled dancing, and brilliant choreography. There have been moments when I have been brought to tears with how good a dance is or with the story that the choreography is portraying. Clearly, I am passionate about this show. I have never loved a bit of television so much in my life. You know what's even better than television? Seeing these dancers LIVE! Which I got to do on my birthday this past October. In case you forgot, I gushed over the experience here.

Now that I've explained my love for SYTYCD, I must now reveal to you when this new season premieres. None other than TONIGHT! I plan on having So You Think You Can Dance celebrations on a weekly basis. Oh how I love that show.

Here's some of my favorite dances from past seasons:

Twitch and Alex. Outta Your Mind. Choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon. Season 7.
Twitch is just amazing. No need to explain that. But Alex (the Asian one) is a BALLET DANCER. And then he just threw down this absolutely amazing bit of hip hop masterpiece. Probably the best dance I've seen on this show.

Chelsie and Mark. Bleeding Love. Also choreographed by Tabitha and Napleon. Season 4.
So emotional and excellent. Story line: the husband is a workaholic who's emotionally attached to his work and the wife is trying to convince him to stay with her instead of leave for work.

Kayla and Kupono. Gravity (Addiction). Choreographed by Mia Micheals. Season 5.
This dance is about people who are struggling with addiction. Kupono is the addiction who just keeps the addict (Kayla) always in his grasp and no matter how hard she tries, she can't get away. It's so tragically sad and emotional and I can't watch it enough.

Robert and Allison. Fix You. Choreographed by Travis Wall. Season 7.
This dance. Oh this dance. It is so good. And meaningful. Travis Wall was the runner-up on SYTYCD season 1, and now he has become one of my favorite contemporary choreographers. This dance was very personal to him and is about having loved ones with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and trying to help them. It's that feeling of helplessness while still trying to help them yourself.

As of late.

Sometimes life can be a very surreal experience.
I can have a serious conversation with someone I hardly know. And the next moment I will have nothing to say to a good friend.
Maybe it's just me.
It's probably just me.
But life is weird.
Somedays your brother is a normal human being, and then the next he is a missionary in Provo, and the next day after that he is on a plane to England. Yeah, this is real life.
True that. My brother became a missionary last Tuesday night and it was amazing experience. I know that the gospel that he will be teaching is the truth and I'm so stoked for him to teach it. Then on Wednesday, due to the lack of visa-arrival, we dropped him off at the Provo MTC (missionary training center). It was sad, but it would have been way more sad had my family not been the most ridiculous and hilarious individuals in all of Provo. Then, blessings of the Lord, his visa arrived Wednesday afternoon and they threw him on a plane and shipped him off to the Preston, England MTC on Thursday
He leads quite a life. And because he is the luckiest person in the world, things just tend to work out for him.

So that's been an interesting adjustment without him. Thus far, I'm not a fan. Though I am a fan of him being abroad. Missioning and things.

Also exciting in my life: Spontaneous road trip to St. George this past weekend to the the solar eclipse. Yeah, it was sweet. My fabulous roommate, Jenna, and I were just sitting in our apartment on Saturday afternoon and within a matter of 30 seconds, we went from having no weekend plans to deciding to go on the 3.5 hour trip down to St George. SO FUN. We also went with some fabulous human beings. This is us looking at the eclipse (as stolen from Josh's fb album):

This is all 8 of us (Josh is in the picture via shadow). We were a little short on astro-glasses, so some of us went blind. Also, our names were a treat to list off: Jake, Jenna, Jennie, Jared, Josh, Kaylee, Halie, and Spencer. Someone stands out like a sore thumb...
Basically, it was an excellent 24 hour trip filled with laughter, games, banana stranglings, accent speaking, piano playing, singing, mission call opening, sun staring, driving, accent to apple inventing, and other shenanigans. I have good friends.

I'm a fan of the summer in Provo; people are always outside doing fun things, and craziness is always right on the brink of occurring. I don't even mind that I am taking a class right now. Though studying outside isn't nearly as productive as one would think.

Also, I love my job. We get some crazies up in there.

Pictures of Elder Lever departing are forthcoming. Prepare yourself.

This post was a random culmination of thoughts and events. Jumbled, it may be, but that's what my brain is like right now, so you're just experiencing my real life via blog.

Elder Lever.

I have a brother. Well, actually I have a lot of those. But this particular brother of whom I speak is the eldest of the five and he is going on a mission. Well, hopefully all of them are going to be going on a mission, but his mission is actually here upon us. And by that, I mean he leaves in ONE WEEK.
And to decode this message for you: Ryan is out. To Scotland/Ireland. To share the truth and help bring eternal life to these great people. He will be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,  the Mormons, if you will. He's going to be amazing.

So, Ryan and I are two years apart in both age and school. But age has never really separated us. Maybe I'm just remember the good times, but honestly, I feel like we've been best friends for a solid 19 years - his entire life. Especially through high school. We are friends with each others friends. We hang out. We used to attack each other in the hallway of the high school. Basically, he is wonderful. This is us back in the day...

But lets get real, obviously there is no way that we've always gotten along.. true, we fight sometimes. Actually, he's probably the one of my brothers that I fight with the most, but in the end, we stop the madness and end up just laughing our heads off at some ridiculous bit of humor.
We have the same sense of humor. All of my brothers do. Apparently our humor is unique and most don't understand it, but we do and we have WAY too much fun laughing at our jokes. Ryan and I can just sit there going back and forth, beating the same jokes to death for hours. It never gets old.
We even look alike. Lets get real, anyone that has ever seen us thinks we're twins. We are the same person. Check this pic, we even laugh the same:

Ryan is the best. I don't know what I would do without him in my life. He listens to my ridiculous stories; rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but listens nonetheless. He has always been my shoulder to cry on, my bodyguard, my source of advice, my own personal comedian, my best friend. He is adventurous and kind and would never admit it, but is just adorably sensitive as our dad. Ryan has a testimony that is obvious through everything he does in his life. He is an example to me and inspires me to be a better person. I just love him with all of my heart.
I can't even put into words how much I'm going to miss this boy. But I also can't express how proud I am of him. He is going to touch so many lives. I can't wait to write to him all of the time about the craziness that is my life.
When I look at him, I still see this cheesy, adorable little kid:

But really though, he's like a man and I'm so excited to see him grow even more spiritually and emotionally these next two years. Not going to lie, it's going to be sad when Ryan leaves and I'm not going to know what to do with myself, but I wouldn't have him doing anything else with his life right now. Go get 'em tiger.

One more picture, just because I love this one:

Volleyball

Volleyball is life.
Seriously, if I could play volleyball every minute of every day for the rest of my life, I would do it for sure.
You know what volleyball-oriented thing I especially love at this time of year? BYU Men's Volleyball. Really though, it is exhilarating and fun and just all around excellent.
The season is now over, which saddens me. But I will certainly be watching reruns on BYUtv, because they have those quite often. And let's get real, I'm already looking forward to next volleyball season! The games really are that much fun. Cheering, dancing, laughing, and watching some AMAZING volleyball - all of my favorite things.

So for now, I will just content myself with playing volleyball every chance I get. It truly is the best sport in the world. So if anyone ever wants to play, I'm all over that. Seriously.

The joys of reading days.

Hello world. I'm alive. Mostly.

Yesterday was the last day of classes for the semester. Celebration.

Today was one of the reading days; those blessed days when you're supposed to have nothing to do except sit and study your head off for finals. Finals start on Saturday.

Here's how today was supposed to go: go to work, be productive, work on some take home finals, do a decent amount of studying, go to a ward party, and then chill for the rest of the night.

This was a great plan. It wasn't overly busy, just the right amount of school work. Sadly, this is not how today actually went.

Let me just give you a little look at what I did today:

Worked all morning. Success. This is the only thing that went as planned. 

At noon I settled onto a computer to start my paper, but then got a craving for Chinese food.

I proceeded to drag my roommate to Rice King to watch me eat said chinese food. She had already eaten, so she sat there studying Spanish while I ate. It was delicious. Definitely satisfied that craving.

By now it was 2:30 in the afternoon and I was back in my apartment, ready for action. Then what was supposed to be a 30 minute pre-studying nap turned into an hour and a half sleep-fest. Don't ask how that happened. My day was quickly slipping away from me. I couldn't handle anymore distractions. I REALLY needed to get working on these things.

So naturally from 4 to 6 I sat and watched my roommate cook chicken and I plotted and chatted and did other generally unproductive things.

Needless to say, it is now 11 at night and I have no idea where my day went or how I possibly came up with so many ridiculous ways to procrastinate my studying. And naturally I am writing this blog post instead of attempting to get a little bit of headway on my work. 

Such is the life of me, your typical, procrastinating college student. I know I will end up studying my butt off and I'm pretty sure I will do decently well on my finals, but I just like causing myself more stress by procrastinating things until the last minute. Yeah, how fun.

Wish me luck on finals. I'm going to kill them.

Jennie out.

Employed.

I work at this place. I'm called a secretary.

I might work with some of the super nerdy humans on campus. And I love it.

I answer phones, I send emails, I print things, I run all around campus.
Sometimes I even get to use the label maker.

Jenny, Jennie, and Jen. That's who works in our office in the mornings.
This is not a joke. Though everyone thinks it is.
Our office sounds like it comes from a television show.

I work in Computer Science. And you would think I know about computers.
You would think wrong.

I unlock those big wooden doors every morning at 8. I fill the printers with paper. I unforward the phones. I check emails. I hire people.
Sometimes they even give me food.
And I just love my job.

Late

Welp. I can't sleep tonight. Hence the reason for 2 blog posts in one night. This has never happened before! Crazypants.
Time goes so fast. I was just about to go off on this topic, but then I remembered that I already have. THIS blog post speaks to part of how I'm feeling right now.  I can't believe how much I have done in my life, but I also can't believe how young and inexperienced I am. I feel like a baby, but somehow I think I've grown up somewhere along the way. I look at my 13 year old brother and I wonder when he stopped being a baby and became this teenager who is taller than me and sounds like a man. That blows my mind. And the real baby of the family is 7. SEVEN years old! He thinks he's a regular adult! Wow, time is so weird.

I am a nut case sometimes. Today is one of those times. I was going to write everything that I'm thinking that is keeping me up tonight, but I promise that no one wants to read my word vomit. And that's exactly what it would be. Just let it suffice to know that I love life. I freak out a little bit sometimes, but that's not a bad thing. I adore where I am. I adore the people I know. My life is a win.

Toniiiiiiiight. We are young.

Toniiiiiiight. We. Are. Young. Gonna set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the suuuuuun.

Don't worry that song has been stuck in my head for a solid 4 days. It was definitely the theme song for the weekend, and it would appear that it will also be the theme song for my week. High quality music, if you ask me.

What did I do this weekend that would make it require a theme song? Why, I only had the best weekend in quite a long while, of course. Took a little tripsy to St. George with some wonderful friends. Did some food eating, game playing, sun enjoying, angel's landing hiking, and wonderful laughing. It was rockin.
Here's a little photographic evidence of the hike (as stolen from Andrew's fb):

There's 7 of us, in case you missed one in your counting. We're all artistic and stuff. No big deal. Anyway, so this hike may or may not have exhausted me and made me sore even now, more than 2 days later, but it was SO worth it. I might be terrified of heights, so I might have been more terrified on this hike than ever before in my life, but I survived! Angel's Landing was beautiful. If you're ever in Zion's, I would highly suggest taking the couple hours to go on this hike. But make sure to hang on to the chains. We wouldn't want anyone taking a little tumble off the cliff.
Favorite part of the weekend? It's so hard to choose! But I think I'm going to have to go with nerf wars at 3 in the morning. SO FUN. Except for the part where we woke up every person in the house; that was embarrassing.
In summary: It was a perfect weekend and I have amazing friends.

A week.

A week. One single week. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. 604,800 seconds. 20 hours of work. 3 hours of church. 14 hours of class. Undefinable hours of what's supposed to be homework-doing that turns into hulu-watching or card-game-playing.
A lot of exciting things can fit in a week. Some weeks can seem unpleasantly long. But when you think about it, a week is nothing. A week is so short and can go by so fast. The blink of an eye, really.
Did you know that there are 52 weeks in a year? Did you take advantage of every single one of those 52 this past year? I can't say that I always did.
This week can mean so many different things to different people. Happy things will happen and sad things will happen this week all around the world.
A week is a wonderful thing. I wonder what this week will bring.

Best.

Let me paint you a little picture:

Middle School. First week of school. 7th grade. Quiet, awkward, new girl who knows no one in the whole school.

Sitting in math class (Algebra 1) with lots of 8th and 9th graders, and only about five 7th graders.

All of the 8th and 9th graders leave for an assembly, the 7th graders are left to work on an assignment.

Our dear awkward new girl sits next to the wall, quietly working. Then out of nowhere, a small (4'10") Asian girl pops up and loudly, slightly crazily introduces herself. It may or may not have been terrifying.

And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Yes, I was the awkward new girl and yes, Charity was that crazy Asian.

So... basically she has been my best friend since that day. We're going on our 9th year of friendship. I know that doesn't seem like an extraordinary amount of time, but consider this: that is a little less than half my life that I have been best friends with the same person. Also, most of those years were middle school and high school and we are still friends. I don't know about your high school, but people didn't stay friends that easily in mine. The people you were friends with in 7th grade, you look back on in your senior year and are amazed that you ever got a long with them.

Basically, I've never laughed so hard, cried so hard, been so crazy, laid about doing so much nothing, or been able to do so much nonverbal communication than when I'm with Charity. She's made me who I am. Without her, I definitely wouldn't be nearly as outgoing. Or funny. 

I have never met someone who has overcome so much adversity and still has this incredible faith and love for life. Charity is strength. I legitimately do not know how she handles her trials and I look up to her so much. She is the greatest example of selfless love. She never thinks about herself (sometimes to a fault), but she always has concern for others and she has this 6th sense where she can just tell when something is wrong. I love her with all of my heart and I don't know who I would be without her.

This is us:

She is the sister I never had. The best friend I didn't know I needed. And I don't know what I would do without her. 

Raise your beard card.

So I was daydreaming in class the other day and then I was rudely awakened by the teacher slightly changing his tone of voice (it was still just as monotone, just about half a step higher). So I jolted awake, and the only thing I remembered from my quick mental trip to the great wide world of dreams was the phrase, "raise your beard card." Yeah, I wish I could remember the daydream too. I'm sure it was a good one.
Anyway, so in my half-waking state, I thought that phrase was brilliant, so I wrote it down. When I looked at it in my notes later, I just shook my head. But then it got me thinking.
I like beards.
Why do I go to BYU? Well it's definitely not because of all the good beards on campus.
There are no good beards on campus. In fact, there are no beards on campus PERIOD. Except for the few and the proud who are in possession of the coveted beard card.
What is a beard card, you might ask? Don't get excited, it's not as cool as it sounds. A beard card is a card that gives men permission to have a beard on campus. Because, you see, beards are forbidden. Why are they forbidden? This is a wonderful question. One to which I have no answer. I see nothing wrong with a well-trimmed, good-looking beard.
I love good beards. Not all beards, because there are definitely gross beards in the world. But I love good ones.
So, raise your beard card.

Some nights, like right now I can't sleep. I know what you're thinking: "Jennie, it's only 12:30 on a Friday night. You're in college, you're supposed to be out partying until the early hours of the morning. Why are you trying to go to sleep?"
And my response is yes, I typically am out partying my little heart out at night, especially on Friday. However, today is just one of those days.
I went to the men's volleyball game, which we lost. Sadly. And last night I went to the basketball game. between those two, I have zero voice and I am completely exhausted. So we got home from the game tonight and I just didn't feel like being around people. Now you see, this is weird for me. I love being around people. I love it so much that my major is based on people and their interactions. Typically I just always want to be around people, even if they are just silent and boring. People are just wonderful. Anyway, so I had an unusual desire to be by myself, so I tried to go to sleep. But then I could not sleep (lots of factors added to this inability to sleep). So naturally I decided to write me some blog posts.