Lessons of the Past Year

Hello old friend. It's good to be back.

You know when someone kind of just... leaves without saying goodbye and then just shows up out of nowhere? It's... a little awkward. Do you have anything to say? Do you have anything in common anymore? 

I hope so. 

You may have noticed that I'm being a bit of a prodigal blogger. Let's face it, I was never that great at it to begin with, but I do enjoy it and there are just people in the blogging world that I need in my life, so I'm back to tell you about mine and I hope I'll be welcomed and I can return to see what everyone else has been up to. It feels like I've been up to a lot. 

Since my last post a lot has happened. Some things I anticipated, others not as much. After Su-Z (as I call her) got married in August of last year, she passed something on to me that... I didn't expect or really want, but it ended up being one of the greatest hardships and blessings of my life. You see, Su-Z was the Relief Society President in our ward and with her graduation into married life, that position had an opening and was filled... by me. 

I'm not trying to brag, believe me. Anyone who knows about what Relief Society presidents do knows that it's not necessarily something you would choose. I learned a lot about being a leader, but I think most of all I learned a lot about LOVE. My heart is still full at the thought of how many people touched my life in that time. I won't go into specifics but I learned how much we have a loving heavenly father who cares for each person individually. I am grateful for that love that he helped me to feel for each person we served. I also learned how much He loves ME. He knew I was in my last year of school, taking more credits than ever before and working and He sustained me through it all. 

This brings me to the next thing that took me away, school. I had been desperately trying to finish school. Quite frankly I wanted to be finished with it all. I had a pretty heavy school load Winter and Spring semesters. I remember feeling stressed between school midterms, finals, work and trying to stay balanced with my church calling. I was a busy girl. At least I felt like I was constantly rushing about. This is when I gained a testimony about visiting teaching. I had a really awesome visiting teacher at the time who would find time just to stop by and listen to my stressed sobs, hug me and remind me that things would all work out. She doesn't know it, but she totally saved my life.  Even the Relief Society president needs a visit from her visiting teachers!

Instead of killing me, my last semester of school made me stronger. My capstone class had me writing a 25 page paper in Spanish, and up until I finished it, it was a constant stress. My professor totally stressed me out. However, in my last meeting with her, she showed me something about myself I guess I was too afraid to see. As I expressed to her that I couldn't finish my paper to meet her expectations, that I was tired of revising and revising and meeting with her only to find it "wasn't quite there" she presented an ultimatum. "Ok" she said "you don't have to finish your paper. You've done well so if you don't want to finish then you can walk out of this meeting today- no paper and no presentation- and I'll give you a C. It's enough to pass the class and graduate." That woman lit a fire in me. I let out my final tears (as you can see, I cry a lot) and I told her I wanted an A. She knew I did. She believed in me enough to push me, really hard, and sure enough after my presentation and final draft grades came out and I got an A. That last semester, particularly that professor, taught me PERSEVERANCE. 

I graduated from Utah Valley University on April 26 2012. I had heard a ton of my fellow students talking about how they didn't want to walk because it was an unnecessary expense. I listened to them, but in the end I wanted to celebrate. So I walked in my graduation and I have honestly never felt so proud of myself. I worked really hard. It meant a lot to me, being the first in my family to obtain a Bachelor's degree. Sometimes I didn't think I could, and sometimes I didn't understand why I should bother. However, sitting in that ceremony I learned that I CAN DO HARD THINGS. 

I had planned to go off and celebrate my graduation in Mexico for a month over the summer. Originally I was going to be taking a Spanish Medical Terminology class in Guadalajara Mexico, but at the last minute, they cancelled the class. I was so disappointed. I started contacting mission companions in Mexico to see if I could go visit, but the replies came to late to make plans. Mexico was off the list. Even though it was very disappointing I understood that everything happens for a reason. This time it seems like the reason was because I needed to be with my family. 

About a month after graduation my youngest brother was in a motocross accident and was life-flighted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. It was really scary to get that phone call at work. I got to the hospital as soon as I could and before I knew it, my whole family was there. The doctor's said that my brother was lucky to be alive, and even luckier that he was not a quadriplegic. After being in intensive care and having surgery to fuse vertebra in his back he continued to progress and heal quickly. He left the hospital after being there a total of only about 5 days. He was back to work a month after the accident and recently was able to remove the brace he's been walking in after a short 3 months. This experience has been a good reminder that FAMILY IS EVERYTHING and it taught me that GOD IS STILL A GOD OF MIRACLES. There is a work for us to do.

So, that wraps us around to the present day. I have recently moved from Provo to Salt Lake City. I live in a cute little one bedroom apartment that is close to my first post-grad job and am nervously applying to grad school. We'll see if I can get in :).

 I guess this means I'm back and even though many of you reading this have not been directly involved in hearing about each individual lesson from the past, I do hope that I can reflect the things I have learned in the person I have become and continue to become.I'm so grateful for the way the past year has shaped my today and my tomorrows. We all have something to offer, we all have ways that we can help to strengthen and lift one another and each day gives us something we can learn. We can do hard things because we are loved and because miracles are all around us. They are not always big, but they are there. LOOK FOR THEM!