Closure

I can't believe my first year of college is coming to an end. I swear yesterday it was August and Amanda and I were unpacking all our stuff in our empty apartment, and we were so excited to finally meet our mysterious roommates, but none of them moved in for like four days so we were in suspense for quite some time...ah memories...
And then it was new student orientation (aka sheep/freshmen herding time aka you feel like you're at EFY again, not that that's a bad thing, but as a new freshman you have this great desire to be treated like an adult and prove that you can handle the big bad world and whatever...being herded around is not very conducive to that feeling...) and you met people you'd never see again, and that was cool and all, but I just wanted to get into the "real" college life.
The first day of church we sang "Lead Kindly Light," and it made me cry. Never before has a hymn been more applicable to my life. "The night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on." (Ok, so I was only fifteen minutes away from home, but still, it's scary starting over like that.)...Classes started, and they were hard, but not too hard. Chemistry was awesome, math had more proofs than I'd ever wanted to learn, team [ballroom] was stress-free at last, French was too easy (but I didn't mind), and religion was great. Time went on, we celebrated birthdays with flair and q-tips for matches, I danced, competed, and took second almost every time. I quickly realized that I was in a ward full of music majors to whom I'd probably never become close. The church is still true. :) I made chem friends and delicious dinners. Pretty soon it was finals week, and we were playing sardines in the library at 2:00 AM. Finals came and went, the semester was over, and I survived my first attempt at college. 4.0 baby :)
Christmas break was beautiful at first, but it got boring after a while and I missed my roommates (hehe love you girls). Round two commenced. One more credit hour=twice as difficult. How that adds up, I'm not sure, but classes were all of a sudden super hard. Math was killing me, chem 113 was killing me (getting 2/5 on quizzes was very common), and I couldn't stay awake in any of my classes anymore, even chemistry (which if you have Woodfield as a professor, it's incredibly hard to fall asleep because he's so enthusiastic and crazy the whole lecture). I learned that you can never, ever judge people because you have no idea what they're dealing with. I missed way too much school (3 days, how I will ever get through a mid-semester tour is beyond me) for dance. Two of the days were a complete regret, the other was a trip to California that was so worth it. I auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, and you know what. It was awful. I cried at dinner at Olive Garden by myself while waiting for my mom to come pick me up. How pathetic is that? I was shattered! It made me sick to think about dancing, physically sick! Gah! Time is the best medicine though, and after a while I was back into the swing of things. Sleep, Team, Class, Dance, Homework. Rinse and repeat, that was my life. I hardcore failed a test for the first time ever. I made a US National Amateur semi-final for the first time ever. I went on therapeutic walks with Kristen. I danced in the ballroom concert I'd been watching since I was in sixth grade. I auditioned for the tour team (still waiting to see what happens). Finals came up again, and that leads me to today...

I have never cried so much, laughed so much, loved so much, learned so much in my life. College is a life intensifier, that's what I decided. I have never been so grateful for the blessings that I have in my life. Practically starting over with friends made me realize how lucky I was to have such awesome ones all through high school. My friends' awful roommate stories made me realize how lucky I was to be living with the ones I am. Not living with my family made me appreciate them more. Seeing others struggle with classes made me thankful for great teachers in high school who prepared me adequately for the challenge college really is. Struggling myself made me grateful to a Heavenly Father who cares about math tests and ballroom issues and making friends and helps me with problems that aren't really problems only because they're important to me.

I am so happy to be here. I love my life. Thanks to everyone who made my first year of the college the best year of my life. I love you all :)

P.S. The following photos are retardedly arranged. I thought they would work out, but they didn't, and now I'm too lazy to delete them all and then upload them all again in a more aesthetically pleasing fashion...