Alirghty, so like I said earlier, I was soooo ready to go
back to the Berg. Rexburg doesn’t have much to do, but at the same time there
is so much going on!! There is never a dull day here, let me tell you! Being at
BYU-Idaho is the most amazing and greatest thing that has happened in my life.
As Uncle Iroh wisely said, “It’s time to look inward and start asking yourself
the big question: ‘Who are you and what do YOU
want?’” (yes I have been re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, my roomates
were a disgrace and had never seen it…*sigh*) But Uncle Iroh has a point. When
you hit college you really have to think about those types of questions…and for
me choosing an out of state college has helped me to really understand myself
and what I want out of life. I can’t say I have figured out what I want to do exactly, but being up here I know I
am who I want to be.
Well at the beginning of the semester my roommates and I hit
a rough patch and things got really emotional and complex. My first roommate
from first semester, Melanie, had reestablished a very bad habit again, and the
rest of us were scared – not for ourselves, but for her. Last year, when we realized she was hurting
herself, we tried to gently push her in the right direction, but the reoccurrence
this semester told us that it hadn’t worked. This time we confronted the
problem head-on. I know it was hard for her at first, because she wasn’t happy with
what she was doing, but her hiding it was making it harder for her to quit. So
this time, I had Julie call the Bishop and counsel with him while I talked with
Melanie and tried to understand why she was doing that to herself. I consoled her
for a very long time and reminded her that she is a divine daughter of a king,
our Heavenly Father, who loved her and wept for her. I remember telling her to
trust us and her Heavenly Father, to let fear and doubt go. I said a great deal
of other thing, knowing that Heavenly Father would help me to know what to say
to get through to her. I can’t remember most of it, but I know that my words
were the words Melanie needed to hear to push her to break the habit and
understand our genuine worry for her. After speaking to her and kneeling down
in prayer, Julie informed us that Bishop wanted us to take her to the hospital.
We did so, and then the following afternoon Bishop came over to talk with Mel.
I know that he and his counselor who came with gave her a Priesthood blessing,
but Bishop also warned Melanie that he may have to send her home. That was a
shock back to reality for her, and she became completely distraught, not
meaning for any of this to happen. She wanted nothing more than to stay and
have a second chance.
I think that’s the beauty of the gospel. We always have
another chance if we confess our wrong-doings and sincerely and humbly commit
to do better, there is always hope. It’s been about a month since that inane
week and Melanie is doing amazing! I am so proud of her; she is truly a
wonderful girl with great desire to do good. She has counseling every Thursday
and so far she is still our roommate at BYU-I, and I don’t think that’s going
to change. I don’t know how Melanie is dealing with the somewhat violent and
sudden course change in her life, but I feel she’s been much more positive and cheerful.
I hope she continues to progress and grow in confidence and strength. All I can
say is thank you Heavenly Father for my other amazing roommates who were there
as support and back up, because I couldn’t have handled this the way I did
without them.
…
O.K. now that that’s out, I think it’s time for some
positive and fun stories! Well as explained in the previous post I am currently
exploring the career of photography. Last semester I realized I had a true love
for cultures, travel, and history of places – mainly from my Chinese Cultural class
and Mandarin class. I know I love Asia in particular, but I would love to be
able to learn and experience cultures from all over the world. Well I could
always go into something similar to International Studies and have an option of
various occupations afterwards, but I also discovered from my experience in the
Interior Design Department, that I also have a deep love for the arts… but my
lack of natural talent has been pushing me away from that niche. I realize that
I do have some artistic ability, when it comes to color, texture, composition,
and the basic principles of design and such, but don’t expect me to paint you a
masterpiece or play an instrument.
Well I took a “Career Explorations” class last semester and
discovered that I can play on both of these interests and talents through
photography! I read about photojournalism – gave it some thought- and then read
about being a travel photographer! Jobs as a travel photographer can range from
snapping pictures for a travel agencies brochure to shooting for National
Geographic! This is something that appeals to me so much at the moment, that I
am willing to learn and develop the talents of a photographer.
I don’t know how I’m doing so far, personally I think I’m
not too shabby, but I want your opinions too. These are the pictures I like
most and was curious what you had to say about them. My photography class is
all black and white photography, and I am really beginning to appreciate and
love the style. Well what do you think??
This really isn't for my class, but I had to put it in because Ash is just too darn cute :P
OH! I also forgot to mention that my 6th roommate
is a girl Julie roomed with last semester named Brittany Johns….err well until
December. She’s engaged and off track at the moment, so she kinda goes MIA for
long periods of time, but Brittany is a return missionary who served in
Argentina, a hilarious and uplifting person so she contribute to our Apartment
of Amazingness.
And also my Family Home Evening brothers are amazing! My
first and second semester I had maybe a few guys in the group that I loved and
thought awesome, but never the entire apartment! O.K. well first let me just
say that my apartment got lucky and ended up being the only girls apartment
paired with our FHE brothers… Why is that lucky? Well you see the Rexburg guy
to girl ratio is a pretty sad 1:3 (although I hear the ratio is closer to 2:3
now) Anywho, it’s just cool ‘cause that means my apartment doesn’t have to deal
with any freaky boy-hungry and competitive girls. Our FHE group is just going
to stay simple brothers and sisters…we’re like the Brady Bunch… except nearer
in age ranges. :P So basically what I am saying is I actually look forward to Mondays now!!
My next post will probably be all about the OCTOBER 8 2011 weekend.
Yeah baby!!! :D Byebye for now!
Alicia told us the night before Columbus Day (Oct 10, 2011)
that she wanted us to – and I swear she put it this way…I am in no way putting
words into her mouth – “participate in her weird family tradition”. I recall
her telling us about her family doing something special every day on Columbus
Day 1st semester, but I had forgotten until then. Basically her family takes vanilla ice
cream and blends blue food coloring into it, takes a banana and slices it in ½ and
puts a tooth pick in it with a marshmallow on top, then “floats” the banana
boat on the blue “sea”. Well here at college we enjoy doing odd and random things,
so there was no argument.
In case you haven’t figured it out, I freakin’ love Monday’s
and Family Home Evening. This one definitely makes the top of my list though.
While in the midst of serving our treats we ran out of spoons! We were one
short and about to wash it, when Roy grabs a pair of chopsticks and starts
eating! It was priceless, and I also have no idea how he did it, but her ate up
all his ice cream like that!!! The
treat was delicious and creative. Now I have to add Columbus day on to my list
of top holidays. :P
