Graduation Day!!

One week ago today, May 7th, I was able to cross something off of my list of things to do. For you see, on this special Friday, I was able to graduate from the University of Utah.

This is something that has been in the works for awhile. Growing up I was always told to go to college and to get a degree. It was something that my mom would always tell me. She always wanted us to succeed in this world and has always felt that getting a good education was one thing that needed to be done. While she was telling us to get a degree she was also telling us all about the University of Utah and how great it was. So you see, ever since I was a little girl I always knew that one day I would go the school that made you bleed red. I knew that I would go to the University of Utah.

Therefore, when the day came that I was getting close to graduating high school I knew that I need to apply to go to college. I took the ACT test, only once, and then prepared my application. I will have you know that the only school that I applied to was the University o Utah. I did not feel the need to apply anywhere else since I knew that that was where I would go. And lone behold, I got accepted for the fall 2005 semester. That acceptance letter was what started my education at the University of Utah.

And now, five years later, I can say that it is complete. After all of the years of random classes for credits, 15 minute sprints across campus, riding the shuttle bus and praying that I would live to get off it, home football games in the MUSS, free food at the institute, sorority days and nights, working in an office for a science program, sweet talking faculty members to make sure I would pass, some random trips to the library just to say that I went there, getting lost in the tunnels that connect the buildings, fighting for parking spaces, and most of all just going to class and praying that I would pass the final, I have finally graduated.

What made my graduation day so much fun though, was the fact that I was not the only one who was graduating. It just turned out that on this special Friday my sister Wendi and her husband Ben where also graduating from the U. Each of us would finally have our degrees. Since all of us were graduating we all decided that we would make a day of it and go to each ceremony. The first ceremony that we went to was Wendi's on Thursday night. It was fun to see her walk across the stage and receive her diploma, well only the cover, from the College of Health.

After the ceremony went all went to dinner with our family to celebrate. then on Friday morning we all went to the huge University wide commencement ceremony. John Huntsman spoke and overall it was really good. From there went to lunch with the grandparents and then decided to kill some time taking pictures until the next ceremony. We had a lot of fun running around campus taking random photos of us all. The next ceremony happened to be mine.

My ceremony was being held at Kingsbury hall. For those of you who know, this building is not the biggest. I told my family that they would have to fight to get a seat and they did. But they all made and I got to walk across the stage to receive y own diploma cover from the College of Education. All in all, I was just really glad that I didn't trip and fall on my face. After my ceremony when run back up the hill to go Ben's. He graduated from the college of Engineering. I have to say that his ceremony was the longest one. They had so many students that were graduating form that college.






Overall, it was a fabulous day. One filled with family, friends, and lots of excitement and entertainment. One that still has not really sunk in yet. So,now I have this lovely piece of paper that says that I completed my B.S. degree. A piece of paper that says I learned and accomplished something. A piece of paper that says I am now capable of doing something... You know, I just might have to go back and get another one.

Random Facts

Have you ever realized all of the random things that you just seem to know? I thinking the other day about what I have learned in my lifetime and what I felt was actually important to know. At first I was thinking about the gospel, life lessons such as honesty, love and friendship, then I was thinking about math, music, schooling in general, and from there my mind then went to the random things that I just seem to know. Now, I don't know why I know these things, but I do. So, listed below are some of the random things that I seem to know that really have no purpose other then to take up space in my head...

*Your ears and nose never stop growing
*the length of your foot and the length from your wrist to your elbow are the same
*No matter how hard you try you can not touch your elbow with your tongue
*A Polar bears fur is clear, not white, and their skin is black
*My hand is the same length as the remote to my stereo
*There are 5,280 feet in one mile
*If you look at a calender the numbers in the columns will always stay the same numbers no matter what month it is
*Chocolate has been used as a drink for most of its history
*Babies are born with wrinkles and then die of old age with wrinkles, but stretch out of them in between
*The average person talks to 30 people a day, the average teacher talks to 120
*TYPEWRITER is spelled with only the top row of keys on a keyboard
*John Hancock signed his name the biggest on the Declaration of Independence, That's why when someone wants your signature they ask for your John Hancock
*The only place ants don't live is Antarctica
*Queen ants will live for 30 yrs, all other female ants will live up to 3yrs, and any male ant will only live a few weeks
*The Quarter has 120 notches around the edge
*When you get a song stuck in your head it is called an earworm and if you were to turn on that song and sing along you would sing it on the right notes
*An ant can lift 20 times its body weight
*After you die your hair still keeps growing for a few months
*Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump
*Stressed is desserts spelled backwards
*It is against the law to fish while on horseback
*State Curfew for people under 16 is 10:00pm, between 16-18 12:00am
*In Georgia it is illegal to walk across the street with a chicken

I figured I would share them all with you so they could then take up space in your head. I hope you enjoy them.

Here I Go - Dreaming Big

I once heard a quote that said this "Always aim for the stars. After all, isn't it better to aim for the stars and miss by a mile than to aim for a pile of crap and hit it dead center." I have also heard a quote that said this "There is only one truth about forever that really matters, and that is this: it is happening. Right now and every moment afterwords. Everyone has a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine. The one that began in this moment-leaving me astounded, amazed, and most of all, alive."

I have decided that it is time that I choose my forever. It is time that I wake up to the world and start to really live my life again. Don't get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed living my life so far. I really have. I have had some truly great and fantastic times that I would not trade for anything. I just have now come to a moment in my life where it is up to me to determine my forever, and I think that it is about time I took control of it.

All your life you grow up having a plan. It may not include every detail or every moment, but you still have a general idea of what you want to do and where you want to end up. You think about where you want to go to school, what kind of jobs you want to have, who you would like to marry, and so forth. You think of all of these things for your life and you plan them out. Sometimes in your life you have had to make changes to these plans and you have created new ones, but you have still always had a plan. So, what do you do when you have come to the end of your plan? What do you do when you don't know what to do next?

I will tell you, you dream. It takes a while, but you dream. And then you start to put pieces together in your head. You don't necessarily have a new plan, but you are starting to think about one. And I know this because this is what I am doing.

I have come to a place in my life where my plan ends. My plan as a child was to grow up, go to school, graduate form college, get married, have kids, and so forth. My plan has grown, changed, and now come to an end. I will be graduating form college in exactly one month from today. I will have my degree that i have worked towards for five years. For more then five years when you really think about it. You start working towards this clear back in high school. And after that day I have no plan. I have no idea what I will be doing next.

I know what the expected plan is. I know what other people think the plan should be. The expected plan is to interview with local school districts and get a job teaching elementary school here in Utah. I know that plan. But, the thing is.....I don't know if I want that to be MY plan. Part of me wants to use it because it is there and it is easy to follow. But, a bigger part of me wants something else, something more, something great.

Now I don't know if that means moving out of state to teach or traveling a whole new path altogether. I have thought about moving to California or Texas to be a teacher. And I have to say that that dose appeal to me. I have also thought about taking a completely different route altogether. I am not sure what that route is yet, but I am beginning to dream. I figure, I will be done with school, I have no current job, I am single, and I don't have any kids to take care of. I have nothing holding me here. Yes, I have great friends and family that I would miss, but I have the chance to jump. I have the chance to have a great adventure. I have the chance to dream.

So while I do not know what my plan for tomorrow is, I do know that I am beginning to dream. I figure that if I get to be the one to choose my forever, well then I am going to aim for the stars and pray that I learn to fly along the way.

Dream Big

When you walk outside and look around at the world and take note of what you see? What do you find when you are standing in the road looking around? What do you see when you look up tot the sky? What do you see when you go to the middle of the city? What do you find in this world when you really take the time to look at it? I know that if you really look around you, will find some of the greatest things ever created.

When you think back in time to how things have run and how people have worked throughout the past, it is amazing to realize and to think about how people survived on what they did. It is also amazing to see what those same people accomplished with what little they actually had.

Think of Egypt. Think of the pyramids that they built and how every stone had to be made and stacked by hand. Think of the Greeks and the empire that they built. Think of the architecture and the amazing buildings that still stand today. Think of our Founding Fathers, and what they had to go through to get us the country we have today. Think of the Wright Brothers and the first airplane that ever flew. Think of the man Neal Armstrong. The man who not only flew into outer space, but the man who also walked on the moon. Think of electricity, telephones, cars, the internet.

All of these things came about because someone had a dream. Someone had a dream that they could change something in this world. And not only did they have a dream, but they were willing to act on that dream. They were willing to take a chance and see if they could make their dream a reality. All of the great things is this world took a dream. Everything that has happened is because someone had the guts to dream about it and then to believe that it could become more then just a dream. Someone dared to dream big. Bigger than anyone who had come before them and bigger then anyone who would come after them.

T.E. Lawrence said "Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they may act on their dream with open eyes and make it possible." All of the great things came about by great people. All of the great people dreamed, but they dreamed with their eyes opened. It is only those who dream with their eyes open that accomplish anything great.

Everything has to start with a dream. Don't be afraid to be the one to dream it.

My Someday List

As I have gone through life so far, I have always seemed to have this someday list in the back of my mind. It is a list of things that I would like to do, try, or go to someday in my lifetime. I have always just been adding to it in my mind when I would find something new that I wanted to do. Quite a few things have gotten added over the years. It has everything on it from things I want to buy to things I want to see and do. This someday list of mine is no particular order and has no deadlines. It is just a list. A list that is always changing. A list that is always being added to and checked off. This is my someday list:

*Attend the Festival of Colors
*Go to Hawaii
*Go to the Clark Planetarium
*Go through the DC Temple
*Buy new Vans
*Make a Living Christ picture
*Finish a scrapbook
*draw a new picture
*Make Angel Bavarian
*Kiss under a waterfall
*Travel through Europe, especially Italy
*Try all 31 flavors of ice cream at Baskin Robins
*Go on a Cruise
*Go on a Safari in Africa
*Sing in a choir again
*Move out of my parents house
*Learn to surf
*Go through the Holocaust Museum
*Read the Fableheaven, Leaventhumps, and Narnia Books
*Get married
*See the 6 hour Pride and Prejudice
*Watch the Sound of Music
*Buy a new car
*Get a job
*Graduate from college (so close to checking this one off)

That is what is on the list now, but in no way is it complete. For this list seems to change everyday. It changes when I accomplish one of them, and it also changes when I add something new. I believe that I will always have a someday list.