It's only been 2 months since I last wrote. I guess that in and of itself is the epitome of working while going to school :)
At the beginning of the semester my roommate Kaila and I hiked Kanarraville Falls for FHE as a combined activity. It was our ward (the 20th) and the 14th ward. Now, as it is I didn't know many people in my ward, and there was no way I knew anyone in the 14th... except I did. While hiking I ran into Leslie, a friend from dad's ward. What are the chances, right?? That was fun.
Fast forward a few weeks...
I finally convinced Chels to go climb a random mountain with me.
Surprisingly, it only took about an hour to get to the top, but ah, it was the highlight of my entire week. The view was amazing and afterwards I was only sore for, like, 4 days, haha :P
Next, I got to take Vlad to Fear class.
Remember show and tell back in elementary school? Yeah, it was like that, except I didn't hate it; I loved it :D
Oh, and then I got to sit in the window during class a few times. That was pretty cool. It made it kinda hard to contribute to the class from up there... but it was fun nonetheless :)
..That's only about 10 feet higher than everyone else..
Speaking of Fear. Yesterday our professors took our entire class (about 15 students) and locked us in a dark closet about 8' by 4'... That sounds big, but most of it was full of library storage.
Why would they do that to us??
Well, besides the obvious (it's a fear class), they were trying to demonstrate being locked behind a mirror, like we read in Coraline. It got extremely hot super fast, but besides that it was kinda fun :)
My newspaper job is going pretty well. I've written more stories than I can count, a few of which have been front-page worthy! Honestly though, I'm just ready to be done. 3 more issues before the end of the semester! Hallelujah!
And for the best news of all. You ready for it?
I'm going to Thailand on a volunteer abroad through ILP to teach young students English. That's right. I leave in January. I am so psyched for this. Sure I've traveled before, but never on my own and never longer than 2 weeks. But I'll be living in Thailand for 4 months! Crazy, right?
See, a lot of my friends are either already on their missions or will be leaving soon and I just kept having this feeling that I needed to do something more with my life while I'm still young. A mission did cross my mind... but no, that's not for me. But then I went to an International Language Programs meeting (they bribed students by paying them to come. Heck yeah I went!) and by the end of the day my application was sent in. Everything else just seemed to fall perfectly into place after that. But wanna know the best part? It feels right. I'm scared to leave the US for that long and teach kids (if any of you know me then you know patience isn't my strong suit), but at the same time I want to be spontaneous for once. I want to play with tigers and elephants and do something I wouldn't normally consider. Plus, if I can make a difference in even one person's life while I'm there, then all the better.
I've traveled, and I know what traveling does to me. It makes me rethink my life and my priorities, helps me find the deeper meaning behind things, and ultimately, I become more grateful for what I have. Last time I traveled was... wow.. only 3 months ago. But hey, who says there's such a thing as too much gratitude and experience??
This is my time, and I'm going to do my darndest to make the most out of it!
On a completely unrelated note, Vlad's still alive and I haven't been kicked out of my apartment yet :D
