Right now I'm going to school at the University of Utah and surprised as I am, I'm loving it! I just finished my first semester with a 4.0 (hallelujah!) and I want to keep that up so I can get a scholarship when I transfer to the school down South. I'm studying business and I love my business classes, but I think I'm changing my major to dance when I go to the Y with a minor in business.
My favorite class this semester (besides institute of course - it's THAT good!) was my business foundations class with Cal Boardman. Wow he's a stud haha. He compiled a book with works from Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Ford, Confucius, and even Darwin. I loved the class because he would take something like evolution and teach us something about business with it. I kept the book because I love it so much! I want to always remember the teachings from it. It taught a lot about well business of course, but honesty and stuff like you. A keeper for sure!
I also took a LEAP social science for business students class. I love this class because it's small and all of my friends are in this class PLUS we won't get shuffled around next semester -I will have a class with all of them again which is so nice when you're going to a commuter school. I love all of my friends from this class and I've learned a ton in there too.
this is and inside joke with the class... my professor and this guy have the same name. I've never met the other but i'm sure they're both amazing! :D
I took two dance classes. One was modern and one was ballet. The modern class was hard because it was more out of my league than I thought it would be. I felt like the teacher was pushing us too hard since it was just a non major class and I didn't like her for it. Now I feel terrible for thinking that. By the end of the semester a lot of the people came up with some INCREDIBLE choreography! Because she pushed us so hard, it made us become better! (This is why free market is so great, yay adam smith) but for real, that taught me a huge lesson... I was so unhappy to be getting pushed so hard and then in the end I thanked her for it! Next time, I will work hard the whole time and thank the person the whole time too. Ballet class was waaaayyy fun! it's also a beginning level class so there were a few who'd never danced, a few who had some training, and a few like me who'd danced their whole lives. It was so much fun to get to take dance every m,w,f (at 730AM!!!) and I'm taking another one next semester. Dance classes are so much fun because you get to interact with your peers the whole time and they're usually really small. that's part of the reason why I want to switch to a dance major at the y... but i could never do it at the U... You can only be a ballet major or a modern major...I'd have to lose like 20 lbs to be a ballet major there, and I'm just not a modern major because... well I'm not. (they're different - can't say weird because I'm weird too and I love weird people but... ya
I took tennis for the first half of the semester. mostly because I needed on more credit hour to use my scholarship and heck, I wanted to wear the cute skirt! It was pretty fun, but I'm still terrible at it.
Institute is like no other place on campus. There's a sign when you walk in that says "your home away from home" and it really is! I love the feeling when I walk into that building. I feel safe. Not just in a physical sense, but safe from judgement too. I get "bullied" a lot because of my beliefs at the U, it's just as liberal as people say. I guess it's my own fault though. Some people just let it slide, backtrack on their beliefs, or just don't say anything.. but I usually say exactly what I believe and I get lots of different reactions for that. Anyways... back to institute! The people there are so nice. I love to just sit down at a table next to people I've never met before and make a bunch of new friends! I also love how we have a fireside like every Sunday. The speakers are always really good and even though sometimes I go alone, they're sure fun to go to with friends!
I'm took two institute classes: Mission Prep with Brother Reading and Book of Mormon 1 with (dun dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!) Brother Wilcox!!! (Michael)
Mission Prep was a little bit hard for me to get into at first... it was a lot of work haha! I guess that's what being a missionary is. The class was pretty small, and one of my girlfriends from my LEAP class came into it and she loves to talk... she was going through a hard time with her boyfriend so I felt bad like... I dunno it was just hard to pay attention. There's so many little stories I wish I could type for you all, but basically, the closer those boys got to their missions, the more focused and righteous they became (most of the boys got their mission calls during the class, one actually gave his farewell Sunday!) I'm amazed at how much missions change boys... but it sort of makes me wish they would've been that focused on the Lord their whole lives. I know a few boys who have always been like that (Mark, Nate and a few other of my friends) and I just look up to them SO much! But as long as their getting closer to the Lord, I'm not complaining! My favorite lesson was when we all thought of a Christ like quality that we thought we needed to work on, and we basically all worked on the same thing. We talked about it in a big circle and it was just an amazing lesson. (then I took the actual quiz in preach my gospel(by the way thats an amazing book) and i SERIOUSLY need to work on patience....NOW!... *Angel smile*) Most of us worked on charity and serving others and putting others first. It made me want to be 21 SO bad so I could leave on a mission now! (once again with the patience thing...) but then I realized I don't have to be a missionary to make a difference now! I don't have to wear a badge to teach someone about the gospel, help them out, or even make their day better! I dedicated my life to others this last trek and it just inspired me to do that even more!
Another reason why I like that class was because of what happened after. This kid in my class - Ethan is "one of those guys." Ya know, the amazing ones that you swear is perfect. We went to the temple together and afterwards he took me home and we talked about a lot of stuff - girls, school, drumming, stage stuff, and every time it turned into something gospel related. I loved it. He just told me how he's always been so focused on his mission his whole life he never really had time for things like girls. Reminds me a lot of other "those guys." and I wish I could remember specifics, but I just realized, I kind of want my life to be like that right now. I don't want to worry about stupid stuff like boys, shopping, clothes, and the way I look. I need to focus on the important things like the Church, my family, and (even though I WISH it wasn't that important) school. People that make me realize stuff like this are the people that I like to keep around. they're the people I want to become more like because they're a lot like Christ. I love people!
My second institute class was with the most amazing institute teacher ever and I'm so happy I got to take a class from him! the class was huge (well for an instititute class - like 50 people) but I still made some good friends from it. I learned something new every day in that class. It was like I was back in ninth grade again... just learning SO much. never having to worry about if it's cool to love institute... just learning! the funny thing about both Wilcox and Smith is that I never felt like I was just going through something we needed to read... they'd take one chapter or a few and make an awesome lesson that I could put into my life THAT DAY. I just loved it! I just love institute! Institute is the best! (plus there's ALWAYS food there! :D)
I'm doing a lot of dancing right now (thanks mom and dad for the thousands of dollars you spent on my dance!!!!!!) I'm teaching technique and hip hop at Clayton Productions, dancing on a semi-pro dance company On Queue (which is also the wasatch revolution football team's dancers, so we'll be getting paid!!!) I danced in the Motab's Christmas concert, and I'm starting on a dance company at Clayton called Dream with all graduated dancers.
Dancing is a joy, but taking something that I learned and teaching it to somebody else is amazing! it makes all of the hours that I worked my rear off dancing worth it! Then, each time they get better, I just want to cry! I LOVE MY GIRLS! I teach girls from second grade through high school. My youngest girls are pretty hard sometimes... and they've sort of made me dislike "Crush" (sorry david) that's the only song they'll dance to!!! Even though I love the song, and I love David it's just, well, hard. My junior high girls are funny because they're still in that stage of life where they're trying to be cool and listening to your teachers not exactly cool so ya. my high school girls are the bomb.com. they work so freaking hard and a lot of them are in my hip hop company too,AND well, they're my friends! I LOVE teaching my hip hop company. those girls work so hard and i just love them! if i can figure it out I'll post their dance. they're so cute!
On Queue is kind of hard sometimes. I'm the only girl on the team that has never danced with any of the other girls (2 are from Alta and everyone else is from Bingham) It's kind of like starting Winner School over again. The girls are really nice though, it's just hard when they know nothing about me. and I tend to be so focused at dance that people don't really get to know me because I just want to focus, work hard, and get better. I'm excited for when we started dancing for the football team though!
Dancing in the Motab's program was an amazing experience! At first it was hard because it was really under my level of difficulty so I talked... a lot... and then the problem with that was I stopped paying attention then the lady didn't like me then I didn't get put in the front and I was mad. and it was all my fault! I will NEVER not try as hard as I can just because it's under me EVER again! but, even though I didn't get put where I wanted to be and I had some hard times through it... oh ya, and I wrecked my car getting to the Sunday morning performance, I loved it! I got to dance for uchtdorf and oh ya, PRESIDENT MONSON! not to mentions brian stokes mitchell... he's amazing. but ya. priceless experience that I'll never forget. I met a lot of awesome people there too!!!
Dream will be fun. I don't really know exactly what to expect yet, but I know that I'll be choreographing at least one number for it :D yay!
I love to dance!
That's all the big stuff. oh ya! I got a puppy dog... well she's four. but I don't think my dad's gonna let me keep her and that's a big long story that I don't want to get in to right now, but I love her soooo much!
Welp I dont want to type much more but I think I want to put up some pictures.
I love you all!!!
Thank you for your love, support, and examples!
