Dear Lindsey

Dear Lindsey,

(5 years ago) age 20
Living in the Humanities House will be one of the most amazing experiences of your life. However, don't let all those nerds make you feel inferior because you don't need to pull an all-nighter to finish a paper on time. Natalie will be the greatest roommate of all time, appreciate her whenever you have the chance. Getting romantically involved with Romney is a bad idea, you should stick with just being friends. You WILL have a challenging year ahead of you, but you CAN do it, even though you think you can't.

(4 years ago) age 21
Graduation is here! Way to go for finishing a year sooner than anticipated. Be forewarned, the post-graduation depression will sink in fast, lucky for you, Bryce is right there with you. The decision to intern in DC will bring on the biggest obstacles in life yet. Call Bubby as often as you can, she won't be around much longer. By the way, she is going to surprise you with a graduation trip to California next month. There are many moments coming up when you will doubt everything; every choice you've made or are thinking of making will be called into question. You've got this, even if you think that you don't.

(3 years ago) age 22
Bridal consulting isn't fun, but you do a great job with finding the good in every situation. Those girls may be mean, but two amazing things will come out of that experience: Victoria and a great story. Victoria will become one of your best friends, never EVER take her for granted. As for the story, this next book idea will be your baby, and you never would have come up with it without this job. By the way, you won't be there for long, your first grown-up job is coming, and you'll start to figure out what you want to do with your life soon enough. You will be confused on several occassions as you navigate through this year, but you'll find your way, I promise.

(2 years ago) age 23
You're going back to school this year! You'll be reminded why you are passionate about education, and it will set you on a career path that you hadn't given much thought to since college. This is the year that you'll prove to yourself that you CAN do this! All of the doubt and fear will seem so silly by the end of Fall semester. Also, don't get too caught up on having life play out in just one particular way, trust me, it'll be better in the long run if you constantly remind yourself that you have options.

(1 year ago) age 24
Oh boy, all that change still has your head spinning! This year is full of emotional hurdles, be careful with your heart. There are currently two Sams in your life, only one of them is going to stick around, and he is golden. You're going to officially start a grad program this year, and the people you meet will become your friends, unlike many of the students in the leadership class that you just finished. You are going to succeed academically, despite all the emotional baggage you're carrying around with you. Believe me, that success will taste so sweet!

(Now) age 25
Holy cow, you're getting married! Don't forget to finish school so that you have options to make the kinds of choices that will make you happy. Don't forget to slow down. Life is whirlwind. The carousel never stops turning, so don't forget to enjoy the scenery.

Love, Me

spring semester is over!

Now 'tis the time to recite a poem

and say farewell to Spring

Semester, when we learned the following things: 

Is your project doable?

How much will it cost?

Why should I care?

Who are your supporters?

Who is your audience?

How can you do this?

Gah! One step closer to our Capstone project.

But hey, I think that we're getting better at this!

The End

Me, Pat, Claudia, and Jana

Almost Summer

I can't believe that summertime is almost here. The last day of the semester is on Friday, my last class is tonight, and then Summer classes start on May 11. It's so strange to think that my first year of grad school is finished., and that I'll be graduating this time next year. It's even stranger to think that I'm going to be married when I graduate!

That's another thing; I'm getting married this summer! It still feels so surreal to be engaged, but I'm practically bursting with joy. We have so much to get done before I start my summer classes, but we are right on schedule. Our date is Saturday July 18, 2015 and we will be sealed in the Bountiful Temple.

We've got just under 12 weeks, but we can pull it off. I think we're both pretty stoked, which makes spending time apart during the week that much more challenging. I wish we could see each other more between Monday and Friday, but this is just how it is right now. Soon we'll be married and the whole "living together" aspect will help us bridge that gap.

Victoria and I went dress shopping last week (the day before the proposal), and found the most beautiful dress for me. I'd post pictures, but Sam is adamant about not seeing it until the wedding day.

Anyway, I'll keep posting updates, but May is going to be a pretty busy month!

Once Upon A Time...

Once upon a time, I had a brother who decided to serve a mission. With him leaving, I decided it was time to permanently move away from home and pursue a life of my own. I found myself moving into a little brick house in Sugarhouse and starting the next chapter of my life.

I started attending the Hillside YSA ward shortly after I moved in in April 2013, and definitely had a tough time adjusting. Making friends didn't come as easily as I wished it would, neither did dating. Five months after I moved to the neighborhood, a guy named Sam moved in as well.

Sam was super friendly, very sweet, and had just graduated from BYU. He'd moved to Salt Lake for his first post-grad job, and boy was he adorable! I don't remember exactly how we met, but in April 2014 we were both at a Multi-Stake Speed Dating Activity and finally started talking. I guess that's the first time we became friends.

In an random twist of fate, I met another Sam at that activity and ended up dating him that summer, all the while bonding with my new friend every Sunday. "How's your favorite Sam?" he'd ask.

Anyway, after the other Sam and I parted ways, this one enthusiastically claimed, "Oh good, now I can be your favorite Sam." While I took two months to deal with my feelings about life, he was the best friend I could've asked for. He even gave me a blessing on a night where I felt so broken that I was certain I would never feel joy again.

I was wrong. I slowly started to feel better, and began dating again in October 2014. I was NOT eager to rush into another relationship, so I did not commit myself to just one guy. However, I had bought tickets for the Yellowcard concert during the summer, and realized I either needed to sell them, or find a date.

My friend Hayley had been pestering me about asking Sam out for weeks, so I invited him to go to the concert with me in November. The concert was kind of blah, so when we set up a second date, I knew it wasn't because he liked my taste in music. We continued to spend time together, under the impression that we were free to date other people.

Come December, things had started to change. We spent more and more time together, and got used to seeing each other on a regular basis. He went home to Arizona for New Years, and I really missed him. All of the guys I was spending time with were texting me at the same time, but he was the only one I was texting back.

Just as the semester started up, we got tickets to Divine Comedy down at BYU and went to the show mid-January. On the way to Provo, we had our "define the relationship talk" and decided that it was time for us to become an exclusive couple. His family came to town in February and I began to bond with his parents and some of his cousins who lived in town.

Flash forward to April 24, 2015.

We got tickets to Cendrillon, a steampunk Cinderella opera at Kingsbury Hall. We were having dinner at B&D burgers, where I was informed via email hat I had won tickets to a Studio C taping in June. I was over the moon!

We went to the opera show, and during intermission, ran into my voice teachers David and Shalee. We chatted for a few minutes, and suddenly he handed Shalee his camera and asked her to take our picture. As she took a few, he pulled out a box, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him!

Oh my gosh! I seriously think my brain stopped working for a few seconds because all I could do was stare at the beautiful diamond ring he was holding out to me.

Of course I said yes!

Now, I'm going to marry the love of my life who is also one of best friends on Saturday July 18, 2015 in the Bountiful Temple. I can't believe I found my Prince Charming, and at the Cinderella show no less!

A New Obsession

So it seems like every year, I find a new project within the arts that I just hone in on. Last year it was acrylic paints, this year it's homemade coasters. I found the idea on Pinterest when I was trying to figure out wedding gifts for a bunch of my friends getting married this summer. To make a coaster, you need: a shower tile ($0.33 at Home Depot), felt, sharpie markers, and modge podge. Draw/color your design, glue the felt on the bottom of the tile, and then use the modge podge as a sealant.

I had so much fun making sets of four for all of my friends that I made one for myself! I'm more than happy to make any set of four for $2. I can design it myself or do whatever someone has envisioned. I love making things even though I'm not crafty!

Whirlwind

My pal Erica recently posted on her blog about how last week felt like a whirlwind, and I'm glad someone could sympathize with the feeling.

Tonight is my final presentation for my Public Policy class; I also need to have in my Proposal paper. It's crazy to think that after tonight, my course work for the semester will have concluded. I presented in my Marketing class last week, and now my Thursday class is over, more or less. I swear, the last two weeks have left me drained, both emotionally and physically.

As much as I love working at the SL Temple, the early Saturday AM shift is taking it's toll on my energy. While I get through my shift just fine, come 1pm I'm usually half-asleep and exhausted. Afternoon naps that end up being longer than 40 minutes usually result in a headache, but if I don't nap I'm a total zombie by 4pm. I keep reminding myself how much being a temple worker is worth it. I probably won't have the chance to do this again until after my future children are teenagers.

Still.

Working full-time, doing school full-time, and working at the temple. Not many people would be willing to take on a stress load like this. I can do it. I know I can.

Yes, it's challenging. Would I change anything? Well, it's not really an option.

But things are changing; they're actually about to change in a really big way!

My summer textbooks have begun to arrive, I'm just waiting on one more that should be here by the time I get home tonight. I'm trying to mentally prepare for the condensed nature of this Intro to Education class that will dominate my life come next month, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

I still can't believe that I'm finished with one full year of graduate school! This time next year I'll be graduating with an MA in Community Leadership, and trying to plan the next steps of my life.

So yes, I feel very much like I'm stuck in a wind tunnel and all I can feel and hear is the whirlwind of life happening around me. But this too shall pass, am I right? :)

A bridal shower, a wedding, and stand up comedy

So, Sam's cousin got married this weekend, and I was invited to the bridal shower. It was a family bridal shower, so it was a lot of fun. Especially when all the women in the room, except for me, assembled their rings on one person's hand.

Seven rings for seven temple marriages

After my Temple shift on Saturday, we went to the sealing. I'd never been to a sealing anywhere other than the Salt Lake Temple, and it was simply beautiful.

After the Sealing

The beautiful Oquirrh Mountain Temple on a gorgeous sunny April Saturday

Sam's other cousin was performing in BYU's Humor U stand-up comedy show that night as well, so after a quick nap, we headed down to Provo to catch the show with Sam's parents, his brothers, his aunts and his uncles.

My ticket to the Humor U show

Overall, it was a crazy busy weekend, but I had a blast. Now all I need to do is finish my final proposal and presentation for my Tuesday class, and life will be perfect!

Writing a proposal

Hang on, I know you saw the word proposal and your mind immediately jumped to conclusions. It's not that kind of story; it's a school story.

Anyway, my Public Policy class has been super interesting this semester, and my final is in the form of a proposal and presentation. Since I've never written any kind of proposal before, I decided to ask for help. My Marketing professor had offered his assistance to myself and another student in my cohort in constructing our proposals for our other class, so we took him up on it.

I have a decent basic understanding of how to write a proposal, and the more I get into it, the more I realize that this idea might have a real chance at becoming a reality. Basically, I'm proposing that budgets for cooking labs in low income schools go under review, and be restored for at least one school year as to measure the effectiveness of it's learning objectives. Based on the data, get either the administration or the school board to sign off on a new budget that protects those allocated funds so that students can actually learn the life skills taught to them in a cooking lab.

I have a long way to go, but I think it's doable.

Easter/Conference Weekend

Oh boy, what a busy weekend!

It all started on Friday, when Sam's roommate celebrated his 29th birthday at an awesome cabin in Park City. We spent the majority of our night at the party, and despite it being 34 degrees at the bonfire, it was perfectly wonderful.

The view from the deck was just beautiful!

Then came Saturday, the first Saturday in a month where I didn't have to wake up at 3:45am to work at the Temple (it was closed because of Conference). I lazily rolled out of bed around 7:30am, and did a few loads of laundry before heading out to watch the Saturday AM session of General Conference with Meredith and Aaron. I'll admit we talked a bit more than we listened, but cut us some slack, we hadn't seen each other in at least a month! Mere made cinnamon rolls just for the occasion :) My favorite part of the Sat AM session was seeing the photographs of the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency and their wives at various points in their lives this far.

Hillside had an Easter Egg hunt in between the sessions, so I went to participate (or to socialize, whichever reason sounds more believable). After the hunt, I watched the Sat PM session while I cleaned the bathroom and made coasters for a bridal shower present.

Since Sam was going to the Priesthood session, I went to get a massage and finally took Sheldon through the car wash (he was beyond gross because of the rain last week). After that, I went to see Godspell at Westminster.

Sunday morning began with breakfast with the Jensen clan (such delicious bacon!), followed by the Sun AM session. Again, I probably talked more than I listened, but it was watched by me nonetheless. I tried to finish making the coasters before heading to Sam's so that we could watch the Sun PM session, but I didn't quite finish. That's okay though, I will finish them tonight.

I actually paid the best attention while watching with Sam, I think I took the most notes too. After that session, we made smoothies and just talked for a few hours. I guess that's what happens when you go a few days without seeing each other, nonstop catch-up :)

Overall, it was a nice busy weekend. Only four more weeks of the semester!!!!

light at the end of the tunnel

Oh my goodness, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

This semester has definitely been an adjustment; so much has happened, so much has changed, and my routine is solid (and by solid, it means completely ridiculous to anyone other than me). But here we are, April 2015, with a mere 4 weeks left in the semester!

Part of me wonders why I'm so eager, only because May term is going to be pretty intense. But I think I'm ready to shake up my routine a little bit. It's hard to imagine that two months from now, my program will be more than half over. As much as I love my cohort, these 3hr+ evening classes make for a tired me, and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on fun activities due to my class time commitment. Oh well, 12 months from now I will be graduating and it will all be behind me.

What have I learned thus far in 2015, you ask?

• For optimum health, exercise 30-60 minutes up to three times a week (think Sunday mid-morning, and early morning on Tuesday and Thursday)
• Reading one chapter from the scriptures in the morning and one in the evening is not as big of a time commitment as I thought it would be
• I tamed the beast that is my hair; I don't even know how I figured it out, but I did, and we are both happier because of it
• The world is full of opportunities, and I have to be willing to embrace them when the time is right, otherwise I'm just running scared
• There is no right time for anything, so going with your feelings (not your fears) is the best way to gauge your choices of what to do next
• I love the temple, even when my alarm clock goes off at 3:45am on Saturday so I can make my 5am shift
• Apparently, I don't need Max's permission to get married