Heaven When We're Home

This is the song I am currently in love with. The lyrics are amazing! Hope you enjoy!

We're all in the same boat

My Capstone (B 499) class is very challenging, and lately I haven't felt smart enough to be in this class. It's really gotten me down. I've also been feeling so confused in my International Econ class. I felt so stupid and alone. But last night, I asked my sweet roommate how she was doing and she burst into tears because she wasn't understanding her accounting class and felt so stupid and alone. We talked for a while about what we were both struggling with and ended up laughing and feeling much better.

Then today, in my Econ class, everyone started talking about how confused they felt about our course work because our teacher is so scatter-brained.

It just goes to show, we're all in the same boat. None of us is ever truly alone. Everyone has their struggles in life. Sometimes, I start to think that I'm the only person who's struggling with a particular problem, when in fact, there are lots of people around me that are going through the exact same challenge. And when we let each other in, and build each other up, we can overcome any obstacle that stands in our way.

Survived the First Week

I've completed the first complete week of classes. Technically, classes started a week and a half ago, on a Thursday, but since there were only two days of classes, I didn't really think that counted as the first official week.

Conclusions I've reached in this first week:

• I'm grateful for clean-checks - I hate having a messy apartment
• I, luckily, have good roommates this semester. And I'm slowly warming up to the girl that I share a room with
• My Communications and English classes are gonna be cake
• But B499 and International Econ may just kill me - at least they'll maybe balance each other out
• Web Design will be time consuming but not too hard

And last conclusion:

• I'm glad this is my last semester, I'm feeling so ready to graduate and start a new adventure. I want to be done with college. I just have to make it through this last semester.
• I'm going to make this last semester a great one!

I also have another decision to make: the ward that I'm in is so young (60% freshman). I'm not sure I belong there. I'm going with my roommate to check out the local singles ward here in town to see if we feel like we belong there instead. Then I have to decide which ward I want to go to. I want to make the right choice. Any advise?

Down to the Wire

This is my last Sunday in Salt Lake until December! Tomorrow, I head up to BYU-Idaho for my last semester and Thursday, classes start. I'll be taking Communications 111, English 252, Web Design, International Economics, and my Capstone (which is my final business class that is a culmination of everything I've learned these past four years and I have to put it to practical use with a real company). But all that I can handle, what I'm really nervous about is, as always, what my roommates will be like. For me, if I have good roommates, everything else is so much easier. I can handle hard classes and being in a ward that I'm not really fond of. But if I don't get along with my roommates, life is so much harder. I've had some amazing roommates and I've had some terrible roommates, so please this semester, let me have the former. Wish me luck!

Finding the Silver Lining

Where one door closes, somewhere God opens a window. So I'm looking for open windows now.

And what I mean by that is that I just broke up with my boyfriend. Jason and I had been dating for the past 5 months, but we just reached a proverbial dead end. I hadn't heard much from him the past week. I was hoping that he was just busy, but when I finally got up the nerve to ask him if something was wrong, he said that he had been thinking a lot about our future lately and he just couldn't see a future for us.

I told him that I hoped we could stay friends and that I would always be there for him, but he deserved to find a girl that he could see a future with and I deserved a guy that could love me and not just "like" me. So, there it is, I'm back to being single. And I'm trying to see the bright side of it. I'll get to go through all the fun "firsts" again: first date, holding hands for the first time, first kiss, all that fun stuff. I don't have to worry about finding a job in southeast Idaho to stay close to Jason, I can move home after graduation and get a good job and save money.

The world is wide open to me now. And although there are some kind of dark, dreary clouds in my wide open world, I know that there is that wonderful silver lining if I just keep looking for it.

Here Come the Waterworks

The last day of my incredible, amazing, fabulous, indescribable internship is tomorrow. I'm going to miss this place like a fat kid on a diet misses chocolate cake. I have seriously loved this internship!!! (maybe not every minute of it, but 99% of it) And I adore the people that I've been able to work with.

Katherine (my supervisor) is such an amazing woman. She's so strong and smart, but at the same time she's incredibly sweet and friendly and has the best giggle when she's on the phone.

Krachel (in charge of PR) as become like my best friend at MAW. I know all about her and her family (maybe sometimes a little too much - ha ha!) and we've had so much fun together doing Kids for Wish Kids stuff and traveling around to schools and Power of a Wish tapings.

Becky (in charge of Special Events) is so amazing. She's gone through so much (one of her sisters was a wish kid) but she is still so strong and optimistic. She's getting married on Saturday at the Wishing Place and I wish I could see her. She is going to be the most beautiful bride!

Katie (Database and also my office mate) is so flippin much fun. I'm always sad when she's not in the office, since she only works part-time. She has such great taste in music, so I never have to worry about if she's going to be listening to crappy music on her Pandora. We've had such great time swapping stories and laughing over the horrible names in our database i.e. Gay Gay and Hans Dickes.

These are the people I have gotten closest to while interning here, but I've also loved getting to know Mike (and seeing his new baby), Frank (and all his fun stories from home), Nicole (and please pray for her dog Babe who has Leukemia), Chriss (our CEO and such an amazing woman), Kandis (and hearing about her mission in Ireland), and Christine (and hearing all of her ghost stories. Apparently her life is plagued by poltergeists). I'll never forget the people I've met, the stories I've heard, and the experiences I've had here at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Utah. I wish it didn't have to end.

Two Weeks

I have two weeks left to my internship and I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it'll be kinda nice to be done with it because it is an internship, and an unpaid one, so I do a lot of work for none pay. But on the other hand, I'm really going to miss it. It's been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I've met so many wonderful people an heard so many incredible stories, and I've learned so much. I've written wish stories, put together the company's annual report, made the signage for the Albertsons star sponsor fund raiser, put together the company's newsletter, and so much more.

I'm so grateful for the hand of the Lord in my life. I've felt all along that this is where He wanted me. Everything lined up so perfectly for me to have this internship, and it's been the greatest blessing in my life this summer. Even when I was in a bum mood or feeling stressed out, I would hear awe inspiring stories from wish families that would really put my life in perspective.

The work we do here is truly the work of angels, and the children and families that we help also bless the people around them in ways that they'll never know - I know they've blessed me. I love how the Lord uses us to be angels in each others' lives.