The tabernacle burned down while we were sleeping

Well, it's the end of another semester here in p-town. This one takes the cake for craziest, most hectic, most stressful, and most insane. But also, I learned more this semester than in any other. I progressed more. I grew more. And I accomplished more. 

Last day in the newsroom. I had a love/hate relationship with this place. And I'll be back at it again next semester...this time as an editor. 

My FHE family. Surprise, I was a mom again. I always get so lucky with an incredible group. 

And what would December be without a trip to Temple Square?

 

It's that time of year again...I'm off on an adventure with the fam. This year's destination...Namibia.

"Oh what a night, late december"

In celebration of Jordie and my 21st birthdays and finals being over, we headed up to the SLC.

 Getting carded for our first time

 Cousins

 Spainy Spain

 Besties

 Up on stage at Keys on Main

 Jitterbug

Every year of my life is crazier than the last. I know that this next one won't break that pattern. Here's to another year. 

Twenty-One

Today I turned twenty-one.

These are pictures from a few of the days happenings. Thank you friends for making it a wonderful day. I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life. 

Birthday week

My bestie Jordie turned 21 yesterday. Love this girl.

Here is a series of pictures of what happened right before The Pent birthday dinner.

Yes, the martinellis exploded everywhere and yes there was blood drawn. Luckily, domestic Whit was there to clean up.

My last story of the semester ran today. It made front page.

There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling rain & remember it is enough to be taken care of by myself.

Team Dowser

This week marks the end of my internship with Dowser. I was privileged work with David Bornstein and interview social entrepreneurs around the country and help tell their stories. And one of the best parts about this internship was the team I worked with. Each of the four other people are incredible and I know each one will change the world in one way or another.

We celebrated the end of our hard work with a true mexican fiesta. Meet team Dowser.org:

Life surprises

Sometimes all I can do is sit back in awe of how blessed I am. And sometimes I surprise myself. And sometimes life surprises me. Surprises this week:

1. Getting a job at the Daily Universe as campus editor
2. Getting asked to be an internship director for The Ballard Center for Self Economic Reliance
3. Getting accepted to Washington Seminar (this isn't as recent, but still awesome)

Life is throwing me incredible opportunities. All of these surprises were a great break from the hours I've spent uploading, writing, reading, applying, and not sleeping this week.

Thank you life for surprising me.

"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible vareity of life"
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

December 1st

It is fitting that on the first day of this month I enjoyed a taste of Christmas while walking through lights and sitting on Santa's lap. And what made it even more wonderful was the company of Spain friends. It still amazes me that 8 months ago I didn't know any of these people and now we continue to be best friends. Every time we get together we can't help but laugh at the crazy, ridiculous, incredible, and out of control times we had over there. It was a dream.

Unfortunately we were missing some key people from the Spain crew tonight. Nevertheless, these people are all dear to my heart.


Gracias a Espana por todo. Siempre lo hecho de menos. 

The Dreamer

I've been listening to this song on repeat for the past few days. This man is genius.

i'm just a dreamer but i'm hanging on
though i am nothing big to offer
i watch the birds, how they dive in then gone
it's like nothing in this world's ever still

It's amazing how music seems to fix everything for me. And good friends help too. 

Me and some of my favorite boys. Taken this past winter. 

Hotlanta Thanksgiving

I've spent the past week soaking up warm weather, sleeping in until noon, watching at least one movie a day, getting to know my roommies hometown, shopping, going to the lake, avoiding any and all homework, and hitting up all of my favorite southern restaurants. Plus, I got an incredible southern Thanksgiving meal. 

What a better way to end the trip than Waffle House?

And the cold weather is rollin in

To begin this blog post, I will start by telling a funny little story from Friday monring. Jordie and I volunteer up in Heber at a hospital and we often do some PR work for them. This week we were handing out flyers to businesses. It involved a lot of getting in and out of the car, which is of course tedious and about half way through we found ourselves at a bank. We hoped out of the car, but this time...Jordan locked her keys in the car. We sat there laughing, not knowing what to do. So we asked the people working at the bank what we should do and we ended up calling the cops. Not one, but two cops showed up to our rescue. Jordan's car proved difficult to open and it took forever to finally pry the actual keys out of the car. Lucky for us, the cops were hilarious and we spent the whole time making fun of each other.

On another note, dinner group is over. Sad day. I think I'll end up eating out until the end of the semester because I'm so used to not cooking for myself. 

And on a third note, here is The Pent. I love my roomies. They stay up waaay too late with me and go to J-dawgs at noon in their pj's with me, and laugh about nothing with me. 

p.s.-Surprise! I have bangs. It was time for a change. 

Please, remember me, fondly

This song is tender and beautiful. Anything by Sam Beam is incredible. Plus, he has an awesome beard. 

So please remember me, finally
And all my uphill clawing
My dear, but if I make the Pearly Gates
I'll do my best to make a drawing

Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl
An angel kissin' on a sinner

The sorting hat

As an avid Harry Potter fan, I got super excited when I found out we were writing Harry Potter stories for the paper.

In the midst of the craziness that is writing for the DU, I had an idea and pitched it to my editor. Luckily, she is also a huge Harry Potter fan. Thus, I became the sorting hat of BYU.

For weeks leading up to my article I would start discussions with friends and we would get into arguments about which major belongs in which house. I had to cut the article down quite a bit, but here it is:
Sorting houses into Majors

It still holds the most popular spot on the website. And getting Facebook messages from random people and texts from friends just makes me love being a journalism major even more. And it shows just how much Harry Potter has creeped its way into our lives.

100

This is my little blogs 100th post. Naturally, I have to do something exciting.
I could tell you 100 things about myself or 100 things I'm grateful for. But, 100 is a really big number. So I'm just going to write until I get tired, which will probably be after item 10.

Here are some of the best feelings in the world:
1. Driving on a summer night with the windows down listening to some good tunes.
2. Seeing family or friends after a really long time.
3. Traveling to a new country or city and experiencing the thrill of exploring.
4. Waking up on a Saturday morning and lounging around.
5. Accomplishing something.
6. Making a difference.
7. Attending a concert of one of your favorite artists.
8. Going to a sporting event and having your team win in overtime.
9. Walking on the beach barefoot.
10. Sitting on a dock.
11. When people remember your birthday without Facebook.
12. Sitting on a cliff overlooking mountains or a city.
13. Drinking a Jones soda and sitting in the grass.
14. Snow days.
15. Watching a perfect sunset.