Dear Readers,
As the title of this post can probably tell you, I'm back home in lovely Heber for the Christmas break after my first semester of university up at BYU-Idaho! I have absolutely loved it up there, and I can't wait to go back. Quite honestly, I miss it already! I am very glad to have a break from school and everything, but I miss my friends that I've made there, and I miss the general atmosphere that "Ricks" has brought to my life.
I know it's been a while since I have blogged, but my life has been kind of hectic these past few weeks. Seriously though, I have thought about blogging, but any single spare minute I was lucky enough to encounter was usually met by a collapse on my bed, or more usually, the couch in our living room, where I was privileged to have a 30 minute nap, instead of me catching up on my life on here. There is something about university that is seriously tiring--I have never felt so tired in my life, but I have never been happier in my life. Finals week, the week that students dread--and love, came a lot sooner than I had expected, but it seemed to go pretty well. Scheduling my life around the testing availability dates was a bit tricky, especially seeing as how I had planned to come home early and surprise my parents, but I had to do a super deep clean ("white-glove" clean checks) the day that I had three of my finals. Wednesday was a stressful day because of this, but I got everything done that I needed to and was able to come home early and surprise my parents!
It's a little weird thinking that I have finished an entire semester at university! I have one tucked under my belt now! Now, the only thing I have to remember for next semester is that before registering for classes, check the website ratemyprofessor.com. I won't take classes from not good professors anymore! I have also found that it is not the class that is generally what makes it good, and it's not even mostly your effort to make it positive (as weird as that is to say), but it really is how good of a teacher you have.
I had several teachers this semester in classes that I thought sounded interesting, and the teachers were horrible. Especially my American Foundations one. I never have slept in class before, and this was the first class that it happened in. Then, there were the classes, like Geography Teaching, that didn't sound very fun, but because of my teacher, I fell in LOVE with the subject and with wanting to be a teacher. For me, it's the teacher that makes it or breaks it for me. And BYU-Idaho is full of them--you just have to know where to look. :)
One of my friends also happened to get engaged over the past few weeks, and I am so happy for her! I have talked to her, just one-on-one, and really got to see how she has changed as a person, and how much better she feels about herself just by making simple changes. We walked around Walmart together late one night, discussing how she fell in love and eventually agreed to marry this boy, and she said it came by a process of things. You aren't ready for marriage right out of high school. I think very few people really are. But her words of wisdom really hit me hard--I think it was kind of what I needed to hear, since this topic is usually brought on me a lot up in Rexburg at school, and I don't feel ready for it. I can't wait for the day that I'll be married, but I feel like there is so much that needs to happen, just for me being ready for it, and I didn't know what it was. But my friend spelled it all out for me, and this general feeling of warmth and goodness came over us, and I knew that what she was saying was what I needed to do to be prepared for marriage myself.
Her first step she made was to make herself happy. It doesn't matter if everyone around you is happy with you--you should be happy and love yourself before you can love another person for the rest of your life. Do things that you want to do. Do things that you know will make you ultimately happy. Although it sounds selfish, do things that you want to do, things that will help you experience life, but physically progress through it, and do things because you can. Not bad things of course, but things that you know will make you happy and knowledgeable about life.
The second step was to make yourself better. She did this by attending the temple once a week, really reading and studying the scriptures, earnestly saying her morning and evening prayers, and really just trying to find out who she was, and making the best of it. Although it's hard to see these steps, these steps are what I really want deeply implanted in my life--especially seeing as how the Rexburg temple is just a 20 minute walk away; I can see it from my dorm. I also, in addition to these three other things, want to be better at writing in my journal, or even just more consistent in my blog.
Overall, long story short, I just want to be a better person. I can see the change that it has made in my friends life, and I want to be just as great of a person as she is. I can't wait to start this new change--hooray for New Year's Resolutions!
Speaking of which, I am also going to try to eat and be healthier. As one of my Young Women leaders lives "plant strong", I want to try it, or at least a lesser form of it, and see what benefits will come in my life. Basically, it's eating meat sparingly, eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, greens, beans, etc. I also hope that I'll be able to eat smoothies, sandwiches, and salads in more abundance, and try to get in some exercise throughout my week. I know walking to class and balancing homework and exercise get really tricky, but I hope my roommate and I can go play racquetball more often together and get some roomie time, as well as some exercise, in to our daily habits.
I'm looking forward to New Years! I will be making a list of resolutions soon, as well as my bucket list. They may be short, they may be lengthy, but I will be posting that soon for all to see.
I hope this Christmas season will be wonderful for all of us, that we may see the real meaning of Christmas and know that this time isn't a time to celebrate the presents, or how much we got in a stocking, but rather to focus and appreciate the Savior and the love He presents for us on a daily basis.
May you all have a wonderful Christmas season, and I hope the best for you and yours too!
With much love,
Brittany
Live. Love. Laugh. Grow.
