Oh, the things you can learn in a year

Warning: this is my cheesy new years post. Mostly written for myself. And kind of long.
One year goes by quickly. But thinking back to what was going on at the beginning of a year- it was so long ago. I've learned so many life lessons in that short/long time. So life lessons/ high times of the year in pictures and words. The year has three parts to me: Winter semester, summer, and Fall semester.

Heading back to college after a particularly challenging first semester where I found myself still determined, but a bit discouraged. I moved in- still quiet, unsure, and wanting to restart again- to an apartment of loud, fun, confident, kind girls. Learned that people I'd always imagined were a certain way were just like me. In fact they all were just normal people like everyone else.
This is where I most felt self worth. This was a home where love was commonly told and shown instead of just assumed. This was a place where I was pushed out of my shell and decided it was okay to like myself and what I was becoming. I learned a good deal of social skills so that when I met people the first word used to describe me would not be: shy. I was taught that any dream I could come up with can be achievable and I gained friends that constantly built me up and allowed me to become who I wanted. I felt wanted.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I found my love for floral arranging and that my medium of art is flowers. 

And I found that peace and closeness to God is easy to feel in the fields of Rexburg in the quite, and under a star filled sky. 

The Summer where I learned the importance of being friends with your family, I creatively explored crafts and floral arrangements of my own, traveled to my hearts content, found out how to create my own adventures and learned how to be content on my own, gardened, learned I didn't need to put quite so much time into my looks in order to feel good about myself, worked on a hot catering bus of crazy women who taught me to take everything with a grain of salt, and worked delivering sandwiches and made friends with people who didn't have the same standards as me and made me realize I had some figuring out to do to find my own personal testimony of the gospel, and saved up a enough money for the next bit of college. 

And then in a return to college I figured out how to make friends with teachers and get through days of insane amounts of studying- I figured out how to get by the weather and the homework loads. I learned how to make time for the people that I cared about, people that taught me lessons of trust, service, and more confidence. And on my own as I searched for answers I really found my own testimony and love for the gospel. Which came just in time as I figured out I was supposed to start my mission papers. And I started to see that God has a plan for me even before I know why or can give up my own stubbornness and go with it. 

And most importantly- it all, always works out.

I learned how to cook a lot more things, despite a couple of failed attempts, became obsessed with family history, and stepped away from some time wasting habits on the computer. I traveled to Hawaii, spent a lot of nights wrapped up in warm sheets out of the dryer in the laundry room to friends and family far away (first semester in college with no family around), and I had way too many corn experiments and late nights in the library. The adventures continued....

sledding on cookie sheets

the corn experiments winner

A whole year summarized in one. 

Next year will be full of lessons from my mission in Japan. Starting February 20th.

For the rainy sick days in which homework should not be done

Today was the first cold rainy winter day of Rexburg. Not quite snow- but really cold and really wet. That's how it is here a lot of the time. And considering I had just gone through a particularly not-my-favorite weekend and was in a grumpy mood from being sick...the part of my brain that hates doing homework (this part does not win very often mind you) reminded me that Cara was waiting for me to be done with class so we could walk to the library and be responsible. And then it reminded me that Cara can always be counted on to encourage me to sluff (yes, I know that's such a Utah-girl word) homework and do more fun things. So it developed a plan that was only meant to last about an hour but ended up lasting most of the day. And it didn't take any convincing at all to get her to make me go through with it.
That plan started out involving a lunch of cupcakes and hot chocolate for lunch. And it ended up involving caramel apples and the presidential debate for dinner. C'est la vie...

Oh the rainy small town streets of Rexburg.

This note on the glass door to a staircase that led up to a little alley apartment- made. Cara's. day. "I still love you daring. Have a great day!" Such a little glimpse into a life.

 Puddles and pictures of feet slowly getting soaked. But really it wasn't that slowly.

On a random side note- found these cars in a parking lot and took stalker pictures of them because both were beautiful and I would be proud to be a driver of such a car as these.

Happy fall!

"Try and dip your apples while I move this pot in circles."

What a way to start the week. Tomorrow will most likely be more responsible and less fun.