Bus Stop Mishap

It all started with a hypothetical idea.

Hillary and I were studying, and as it came to be dinner time, Hillary comes up with a great idea. "Hey, we should go get Five Guys for dinner!" Totally needing a break, and seeing as how I don't think I've ever really eaten there before, I agreed.

However, neither of us have cars. Neither of us were with roommates who had cars and were available.

So. We decide to take the city bus. It would be good to figure out at sometime, right? Well, that's just the beginning of the story...

After about 20 minutes of looking at a tiny iPod screen to figure out where the bus stops were, we had a few minutes to get to the bus stop from Hillary's apartment. We ran there, thinking it was funny that we had to run and hurry to go buy burgers. How much more American can we get? Maybe if we were wearing a Hawaiian shirt, socks with sandals, and had American flags waving in each hand, that could count.

Anyways, we got on the bus, and were so proud of ourselves for figuring this out. We made it to the bus transit station, where we had to switch buses. Now we were really confused. We thought we knew which stop we had to get off at, but turns out...we didn't. When the bus stopped across the street from Five Guys, we were so happy that we got on the right bus that we didn't pull the string to tell the driver we needed to stop. Two people got on, and we walked up to the door to get off, but the doors shut on us. Little Miss Cranky Bus Driver told us that we didn't pull the cord and didn't know that we needed to get off, and next time we needed to pull it to get off. Sheesh. Let's just say Hillary and I knew at that point in time that neither of us desire to be a bus driver later in life.

We crossed the street, got our food, and then quickly realized that we needed to leave to get to the bus stop in time.

This is where it gets funny and embarrassing and even a little scary at the same time.

We left to where we thought the bus stop was, and were even 10 minutes early, just to make sure we wouldn't miss it. (The buses were stopping after this last pick-up/drop-off so if we missed it...we missed it.) We stood by this sketchy bench by an auto-part shop, and a guy told us that no bus was coming to that stop. No buses had come for several weeks. Panicked, now with only a few minutes to spare, we awkwardly ran to the stoplight to cross the street--with brown paper bags filled with greasy fries, fry sauce and hamburgers in one hand and cold drinks in the other.

As we approached the stoplight, we could have crossed, but there were only about 8 seconds or so left on the crosswalk. We probably could have made it if we ran, but I hate rushing across crosswalks. I told Hillary we'd just wait for the next light, and play it safe. BAD IDEA. As we were sitting there, waiting for the light to turn, OUR BUS CAME THROUGH THE INTERSECTION. There it went. Our ride. Flew past our station because we weren't at the stop on the other side of the street.

Hillary and I stared at each other, nervously laughing, and worried about how we'd get home, where we'd eat our food, and whether or not we'd make it through the night.

We crossed the street, and realized our next best bet would be to find another bus stop nearby. We frantically pulled out the bus map that we thankfully grabbed in one of the buses. We laughed, and almost cried, trying to figure out where we needed to go. Pretty dang sure cars that passed us thought we were drunk. Just imagine this scenario--two girls, out on the streets, carrying brown paper bags with them, and laughing at night time, staring at a map...yeah, pretty sketch.

We found a bus stop a few blocks away, and stopped there. By then our drinks were gone, and we were pretty worried. It was dark outside, and we didn't know where we were. Thanks bus map. We didn't see the times listed for this particular stop and were worried that we either missed the bus or it was like the last stop and a bus hadn't come there for a few weeks.

Hillary eventually called a guy in her ward to come rescue us, but it was a little awkward. She hardly knew him, and this was kind of a big favor. A few minutes later, after we had given extremely confusing directions, he was on his way to get us.

In this time, however, the bus that we had found the stop for came crawling by. We saw it in the distance and panicked. "No, no, no, no. Matt's on his way. Just keep walking so that the bus doesn't think it has to stop for us." We awkwardly walked around, and the bus passed. Oh, did I mention we're pretty much creeping around on a middle school campus at this bus stop? Yeah. I was worried we'd be pinned by a police officer either for trespassing on school property, looking like we were drunks or some scum of the street. Thankfully that didn't happen. But as we continued to wait for Matt to come pick us up, THE SAME BUS CIRCLED AROUND AND PASSED US AGAIN. Awkwardly seeing it again, we started walking down the sidewalk, hoping that the bus wouldn't stop and ask if we needed a ride.

Thankfully, Matt pulls up a few moments later, and we get in the car. He dropped us off at the apartment, and was extremely nice.

Hillary and I went up to her dorm and ate our now cold fries and soggy burgers. Yum...

However crazy this night was, it has definitely been one of the most memorable and fun filled nights I've had, especially since being up here.

Thank you, Hillary, for making me laugh and going on extremely random adventures with me. It makes for some great memories!

Live. Love. Laugh. Grow.

A Change of Heart

Let me start this post out with a story:

This semester at school, I've decided to try to be more social and outgoing. Not only is this a good goal in and of itself, but honestly, how am I ever going to meet a guy when my classes are all mostly girls? I just want to make friends, meet guys, and have a fun college social life, you know?

So with that background, yesterday I hiked up the hill to campus by myself to go to the Institute opening social. As I stood in the mass of people, I felt really alone. I knew no one, I didn't come with anyone, and everyone was already forming groups of familiar friends. I started talking to a girl in line in front of me, and we hit it off really well. After we had gotten our food, we went and sat down by a guy that was sitting by himself. We introduced ourselves, and they immediately hit it off. I would try to pitch in a conversation topic, or say something, and they'd acknowledge me, but then go off on stories from their mission that were similar, or mission companion stories, and what not. They were laughing and intently staring in each other's eyes, and whatever else they were doing. The rest of the evening, those two stuck together, and I felt so incredibly alone. I wished that I could just find someone familiar and have someone to talk to.

Long story short, I saw a few people from my ward, who welcomed me into their group of friends, we danced together, went and got Jamba Juice together, and then went and played some card games back at their apartment together.

What was the point of that story? Well, it's made me really think about relationships. Not just the general sense of having a boyfriend, but what needs to happen with me before that can even happen.

I realized that I needed to stop being worried about where a guy was for me, and start working on developing the most important relationship I'll ever have in this life: a relationship with God.

Not like I've been having a spiritual low lately, but I've just felt like I have a lot of growing to do. I'm also really good at comparing myself to my current state, and where I want to be, and that can sometimes be a little disheartening, you know?

So, instead of being mopey about it, I did something about it.

I woke up this morning, and immediately put together a system of journaling, note-taking, whatever you want to call it. I'm calling it my "Coming Closer to Christ" notebook. I hope to take a certain topic every day, read a talk, watch a Mormon Messages video, read related scriptures, or do something along those lines to help inspire me, teach me more deeply about the gospel, and develop a strong, unbreakable, and everlasting relationship with my Heavenly Father.

Today, for example, I used LDS.org, and searched for topics on God the Father. It was incredible!

In fact, I read a talk that was pretty life-changing for me. I view so many things differently now just reading it. I realize how important life is--Satan is pretty great at distracting me from what is important, or just making me justify not reading my scriptures, or not praying on my knees. And as small or simple as those things seem, they're so critically important for feeling the Spirit in my life.

The talk is called "Knowing God", and was given by Elder Bernard Brockbank found in the 1972 July Ensign. It was really amazing. If I were you, I'd give it a read.

"Knowing God"

There are many great parts of that talk, but one part that really stuck out to me as I'm starting this journey with God was, "The Lord has indicated that the gates of hell cannot prevail against revelation from him to any one of his children who desires to know the living God and to know the living Christ."

Also, as a side note, I wouldn't want to start a relationship or especially get married before I develop this relationship and make it the strongest part of my life. Believing in God and knowing, really truly knowing God are two very different things. I've believed in Him, and now is my time to get to know Him. A relationship should start between two people who are completely devoted to God. I hope my husband, wherever he is, is always looking to God, until God tells him to look up and see me.

The best marriages are built on two people who were first devoted to God and their relationship with Him, and then work with each other on achieving celestial marriage. And I want nothing less.

Wherever we all are on this journey--and we're all at different places--I hope we find Christ and realize the beauty that He can put in our lives by simply finding Him and wanting to know Him.

Live. Love. Laugh. Grow.