Because I have a few minutes to spare while I listen to music that I am preparing for a life-skill I'm doing for the kids at work, I decided to post something. It's funny because I am always lecturing my kids to relax, stay in the moment and not be so concerned about what's for dinner, or what's going on in another part of the house, etc. etc., yet I am that person too! I am so anxious and always looking to be doing something (even if it is just worrying about something else) that I can't just sit here and enjoy 20 minutes listening to music I've never heard. I have to be updating my checkbook, checking facebook, checking my email five times in five minutes, and now blogging. I'm pathetic.... :-)
I know everyone is dying to hear about the many amazing adventures I've been having because my life is just so riveting and unpredictably awesome, right?! Wrong. In fact, things on the homefront have been pretty boring lately, although that is not to say they haven't been extremely busy at the same time. Does that even make sense?
Well... I recently started working for a professor at BYU as a research assistant and my current duties include a lot of PR work to get the word out about an important global conference on Human Trafficking. I am so excited to be part of this incredible project, but now I'm cursing my lack of ingenuity when it comes to the many technological advances of the internet, specifically social networking sites. I have been assigned the task of making a facebook page, setting up a twitter, and creating a blog to raise awareness about this event and getting people to register, submit papers and attend. The only problem is, I am CLUELESS when it comes to doing this. Sure, I have a personal blog, and facebook, but Twitter?! It's like a whole different language! And how do you use these sites to contact people you don't even know?! I have yet to figure it out.
Another important news bulletin: this just in!
Savannah has lost a total of 4.4 lbs in the last two and half weeks! I know it's not much, but damn, it's nice to see the scale move down instead of up for a change! I only hope I can stay dedicated enough to continue until I lose my goal of 30 lbs. Time will tell, I guess.
Well, I should probably get out of bed now and get ready to face the day! I am actually somewhat excited about tonight... I get to work with my BFFF from work! (BestFreakingFriendForever... in case you were wondering. Yup, I stole it from a kid at work... hahahaha)
Peace out.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Nostalgia
So it has finally hit me... I have an extremely severe case of nostalgia. The bug was floating around on Friday, but I knew it had hit me this Sunday when I was uploading all my graduation pictures and reading a friend's blog about her own graduation this year. Getting a whiff of nostalgia this time of the year is unique for me. I usually get a more mild case during the fall and winter months, don't ask me why... But this year is different.
I just graduated.
I just graduated.
I just graduated from college!
I'm done. Finished. The end! The more I say it, the weirder it seems to get. After all the many years of hard work, it is extremely hard to believe that I'm really finished. Friday morning, nothing seemed to sink in at all. It must have been the four hours of sleep I was running off of, but I just wasn't feeling the happy/sad/pensive/relieved/catharsis that should probably be present on Graduation Day. I looked back to three years ago when I graduated from Dixie with my Associates and how amazing that day felt. I was nostalgic then! So what seemed to be the problem this time around?
I never got a high school graduation. Yeah, I graduated, but I did it early and without all the bells and whistles. My Dixie graduation was my first, and probably my proudest. That day, I proved to the world (or at least to myself) that I wasn't a screw up. The occasion begged to differ with all of the teachers/parents/friends/relatives/etc. who thought that I was just bad news, a nobody going nowhere. At that point in my life, to shove a diploma in all of those people's faces felt like an extra juicy watermelon snow cone on the hottest day of the year: pure bliss! So, this Friday I chalked my lack of enthusiasm up to the fact that for most people, graduation is just a long boring ceremony full of old, decrepit men droning on, and that no one truly wants to attend.
Dixie was a different story for me and really meant something. Though this year should mean a whole lot still (I am the first person on one side of my family to receive an college degree!) the sparks just did not seem to fly. Now that I have had a few days to process, I think I've realized that all of my excitement/relief was not there because I am not truly finished yet.
I am going to graduate school.
I am going to graduate school.
I am going to freaking graduate school!
That statement also seems to get weirder and weirder the more I say it. Who would have ever thought I would make it to graduate school? Probably not any of the aforementioned teachers/parents/friends/relatives/etc. :-P
But here I am, in the words of a card I received, "Miss Smartypants." And a girl who got into Columbia and Smith, two of the top graduate schools of social work in the nation! Pretty impressive, right? I still can't believe it. I also can't believe that I'm not going... Ok, wait... I can. To move across the country and find a new life for Brett and me and get into buttloads of debt is just not the most logical thing right now. Not when we have so much great stuff here. BYU is beckoning me in the fall, and I think that played a huge role in my lack of butterflies and thrills on Friday. I know there is so much more school to be completed.
I have two more years before I am officially done. I wonder what I will feel then. Maybe I will feel more like an adult, a woman. Maybe not. As a kid, those are feelings I thought I would feel by now. Isn't it weird how you picture so many things as a kid, and then you grow up and it's nothing like you imagined? It really makes me wonder if I will ever start feeling like an adult... I know I am living in the "adult-world". I have tons of bills, I spend half my time cleaning my house, I don't ever hang out with friends, after a long days work all I want to do is lay in bed, I get at least five items of junk mail a day, I have to worry about buying fire extinguishers for when the heating element in the oven decides to blow up, and the list just goes on. I have lived in the adult world since I was 17. This is nothing new. So, why don't I feel adult? I have a Bachelors Degree for heaven's sake! I can make more money and get a better job because I'm "qualified." Qualified to do what, I wonder? Qualified to keep on doing the same things I have been doing all along, only without the piece of paper to prove that I can?
Don't get me wrong, I have learned SO much from my years of college, but when I look back, I realize that most of it had nothing to do with any of the classes I took, but everything to do with the process, the journey. Now that I am in full reflection mode, let's get to the good stuff. The memories and the lessons. You have already read this far, so hopefully you will stick around for my final cruise down memory lane for the night.
2005-Dixie State-Rebels Forever!
This first year of college was monumental for me! Things I learned:
Big moments:
I just graduated.
I just graduated.
I just graduated from college!
I'm done. Finished. The end! The more I say it, the weirder it seems to get. After all the many years of hard work, it is extremely hard to believe that I'm really finished. Friday morning, nothing seemed to sink in at all. It must have been the four hours of sleep I was running off of, but I just wasn't feeling the happy/sad/pensive/relieved/catharsis that should probably be present on Graduation Day. I looked back to three years ago when I graduated from Dixie with my Associates and how amazing that day felt. I was nostalgic then! So what seemed to be the problem this time around?
I never got a high school graduation. Yeah, I graduated, but I did it early and without all the bells and whistles. My Dixie graduation was my first, and probably my proudest. That day, I proved to the world (or at least to myself) that I wasn't a screw up. The occasion begged to differ with all of the teachers/parents/friends/relatives/etc. who thought that I was just bad news, a nobody going nowhere. At that point in my life, to shove a diploma in all of those people's faces felt like an extra juicy watermelon snow cone on the hottest day of the year: pure bliss! So, this Friday I chalked my lack of enthusiasm up to the fact that for most people, graduation is just a long boring ceremony full of old, decrepit men droning on, and that no one truly wants to attend.
Dixie was a different story for me and really meant something. Though this year should mean a whole lot still (I am the first person on one side of my family to receive an college degree!) the sparks just did not seem to fly. Now that I have had a few days to process, I think I've realized that all of my excitement/relief was not there because I am not truly finished yet.
I am going to graduate school.
I am going to graduate school.
I am going to freaking graduate school!
That statement also seems to get weirder and weirder the more I say it. Who would have ever thought I would make it to graduate school? Probably not any of the aforementioned teachers/parents/friends/relatives/etc. :-P
But here I am, in the words of a card I received, "Miss Smartypants." And a girl who got into Columbia and Smith, two of the top graduate schools of social work in the nation! Pretty impressive, right? I still can't believe it. I also can't believe that I'm not going... Ok, wait... I can. To move across the country and find a new life for Brett and me and get into buttloads of debt is just not the most logical thing right now. Not when we have so much great stuff here. BYU is beckoning me in the fall, and I think that played a huge role in my lack of butterflies and thrills on Friday. I know there is so much more school to be completed.
I have two more years before I am officially done. I wonder what I will feel then. Maybe I will feel more like an adult, a woman. Maybe not. As a kid, those are feelings I thought I would feel by now. Isn't it weird how you picture so many things as a kid, and then you grow up and it's nothing like you imagined? It really makes me wonder if I will ever start feeling like an adult... I know I am living in the "adult-world". I have tons of bills, I spend half my time cleaning my house, I don't ever hang out with friends, after a long days work all I want to do is lay in bed, I get at least five items of junk mail a day, I have to worry about buying fire extinguishers for when the heating element in the oven decides to blow up, and the list just goes on. I have lived in the adult world since I was 17. This is nothing new. So, why don't I feel adult? I have a Bachelors Degree for heaven's sake! I can make more money and get a better job because I'm "qualified." Qualified to do what, I wonder? Qualified to keep on doing the same things I have been doing all along, only without the piece of paper to prove that I can?
Don't get me wrong, I have learned SO much from my years of college, but when I look back, I realize that most of it had nothing to do with any of the classes I took, but everything to do with the process, the journey. Now that I am in full reflection mode, let's get to the good stuff. The memories and the lessons. You have already read this far, so hopefully you will stick around for my final cruise down memory lane for the night.
2005-Dixie State-Rebels Forever!
This first year of college was monumental for me! Things I learned:
- Roomates=bitches. Don't ever share a house with girls you don't know, if you don't have to.
- I fit nicely under a coffee table, and this is an ideal spot for watching football games without being detected by people who annoy you, while still being able to scare and have fun with the people you do like.
- Lost is the BEST show ever and totally worth staying up until six a.m. for a week to watch the entire season on your friend's Xbox.
- Flag football in pouring rain= AWESOME!!!
- Don't start a bonfire at Sandhollow after 10 p.m. The rangers will find you even if you try to hide in the water... Haha!
- Twister is best played with 10+ people.
- Stealing road signs is only fun until you get caught and slapped with hundreds of dollars in fines.
- There's nothing like a best friend who will carry you on his shoulders all day at the big ass show.
- Don't buy a hamster without making sure you aren't allergic first. (guess that is karma for sneaking one in a pet-free apartment?)
- Don't ever pass up a bonfire with crazy drunken friends. There is nothing more entertaining!
- Pranking the neighbor boys apartment and capturing it all on film is a must!
- Best friends are priceless.
- Every car I ever buy is destined to break down on me.
- Giving a burned copy of the Matches cd with your phone number to the guy at Big O who said he "dug your tunes" doesn't mean he will ever call, but hey, it was gutsy!
- France is every bit as amazing as I pictured it!
- The ultimate place to tan is along the French Riviera.
- Skydiving is the best birthday present a girl could buy for herself.
Last but not least, the most important thing I gained from my first year of college:
- The pathway to my future as a therapist, thanks to three incredible people: Karl Hutchings Tim Eicher and Eric Young.
2006-Another Year at Dixie!
Highlights:
- Living with bitches again (didn't I learn the first time?!)
- Bowling with Bo almost every night, and sometimes driving all the way to Mesquite when St. George was having league.
- Going to three concerts in one week.
- Thousands of dollars in dental work & massive American Express debt.
- Meeting the love of my life and moving to Cedar City just to be close to him.
- Getting a pop and treats at Phillips 66 or Shell with Lettie every week just before Greys.
- Trips to Zion/Bryce and Arches on a regular basis.
2007- SUU at its finest!
Highlights:
- Getting a job at the Abbey Inn, where I met some of the most amazing women!
- Summers in Cedar and going up the canyon to visit Brett's grandparents a lot at their cabin.
- Saying goodbye to my Gilmore Girls.
- Discovering Roseanne.
- Babysitting Luke.
- Meeting Elise and learning lots of French!
- Cedar City snow storms (o.k. so these were memorable... not happy occasions)
- Game nights with Brett's roomates and the Milford crew.
- Breaking my new phone.... four times.
- Brads "slut" hut, Costa Vida, Brunos, Pastry Pub, and Pizza Factory= enjoying a town full of good food!
And last but not least....
- The Proposal!!
2008-Home, Home on the Range: UVU Part I.
Big moments:
- Getting to go to school with Brett everyday.
- Working with a bunch of people who quickly became good friends and making many midnight trips to Dennys!
- Wrecking my car and buying a new one.
- The 4 hour iPod Kiss-Off
- Being a Teachers Assistant for one of the greatest teachers at UVU.
- Planning our wedding
2009- UVU Part II
Highlights:
- Overcoming my fear of public speaking by presenting at several research conferences.
- Getting married.
- Taking a hip hop class with my sister, and pimpin' it out.
- In N Out opening in Utah County!
- Learning to live large even as broke newlyweds.
- Getting promoted at work.
- Learning more about DBT.
- Finishing my grad school applications.
- Getting into Smith, Columbia, Boston, Barry, St. Catherine's, BYU, and Washburn!
- Flying to Massachusetts by myself to check out Smith.
- Paying off all of my credit card debt.
And last but not least...
- Booking a trip to Jamaica as my graduation present to myself!
Whew! It has been an incredible five years, filled with memories and experience I will never forget. I may not have the whole world yet, but check back in two years... You never know!
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