For Granted

This week... well, let's just say it's not going so smoothly.
Over Thanksgiving break I recieved a call from my bishop. "Are you sitting down?" he asked, and sent my mind racing. He explained he was standing in my bedroom - in a foot or so of water. My clothes and shoes were being taken to the laundremat and I was told I could be compensated for any damage.
I wasn't fazed. They're just THINGS, I told myself.
I knew it would all work out.


But it's been hard. I came home Saturday night to a room full of fans and clutter - and no coats or shoes or blankets. Everone I asked seemed to have a different answer regarding where my things were. Some of those things were so pretty, and I loved them so much.
Why did it take a disaster to make me realize that? Why wasn't I grateful before?

"Humans have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted" -Aldous Huxley

It's something we're all very good at. We adjust to ups and downs in order to reach a homeostatic norm, which is good when we're facing lots of downs, but it minimizes our ups as well. We should magnify every up we have, we should delight in simple beauty and exude effortless charity.

There is so much good here.


I will not take these days for granted. I will not continue to sit in my musty apartment hiding from the cold and my own insecurities.
(I will sit in my musty apartment and try to eventually get my homework done... But after that? I'm going to carpe freaking diem. Or noctem, as it were. )

Oh and my sister is getting married! I'm so happy for her!

Let me count the ways...

"Whatever you are doing, love yourself doing it. Whatever you are feeling, love yourself feeling it."
- Thaddeus Golas

I've been doing a lot. I'm taking eleven classes (five of them are dance classes, so it's not THAT crazy, but it is time consuming) and just when I thought I had finished my midterms, another wave hits. I have three next week. Sometimes it's hard to love what I'm doing, and then we learn a beautiful dance or I find a pretty leaf or I watch a thought provoking play and I love it again.

I've been feeling a lot, too. Fear of inadequacy, homesickness, lonliness... and love and strength and bliss. My roomate must think I'm bipolar, I swear.

Sometimes it helps to recognize what I love about myself, because I forget to love myself.

I love the calluses layered on my feet. They break and peel and build on top of each other and look completely disgusting, but they tell a story of steps and leaps and spins.

I love the shadow my lower lip casts on my chin. I only recently noticed it, and it's a unique and beautiful thing.

I love my hair (sometimes). It's thick and wavy and naturally blonde. I'd like it longer, I'd like it less frizzy and dry, but I take pride in my mane. It's wild.

I love that I can run four miles. I used to die running one lap in high school. (One year I asked my teacher if I could try skipping instead and she let me. I felt like a fairy.)

I love that I have opinions. I love that I can sometimes manage to voice them eloquently and convincingly.

I love that I am alive.

It seems like I'm still waiting for the sun

I'm not going to lie, I thought college would be different.
I thought I'd have a job by now.
I don't, but not for lack of effort.
I thought I could handle eleven classes.
I can, but barely.
I thought I'd have tons of friends.
I'm still working on that.

Some days are harder than others. I've always taken it for granted that I had friends from many different places - CYT, school, church, dances - and that any given weekend, if I called enough people, I could find someone to be with. It never took much effort, and my method led to much on-demand companionship. Some of these companions turned out to truely be my friends.

But, like most things, you don't miss something until you've left it behind.

So I'm making more of an effort than I've ever had to make before, and I'm afraid I'm not doing very well. I'm more shy and insecure than I thought I was. Every invitation I extend feels like I'm bracing myself against rejection. I truly empathize with the complaints of boys who struggle asking girls out. I asked boys out at home more than I was ever asked out, but I always knew before I asked that they would say yes, that they wanted to be with me.

I don't know that here.

I don't know who I even am right now. I'm "in between" in so many ways, and sometimes I catch myself, like Lot's wife, looking back longingly. I just want a friend who feels like family, who I can talk to about my thoughts and feelings and insecurities and delights and discoveries without feeling like I have to create a persona for them to be enamored with.

The truth is, there's a lot about me not to love and I'm sick of pretending there isn't. But that's how you make friends, isn't it? You talk about nothing of lasting importance. You pretend to be fascinating and cool until they figure out you're really just spacy and hyperactive.

Is it normal that the reason I'm looking forward to Christmas break isn't that I want to see my friends but that I want to be home? I miss my brother and my family and my room and the ocean and I want to go on long walks in the canyon with Wibby and bake things from scratch and spend way too much time at the Mitchell's house?

Gracenotes

I see a lot of balance in my life. Every day seems to wobble with little joys and setbacks, but ultimately reaches stability.
Today was full of wobbles.
In tap we prepared our routine for our upcoming test, and I struggled to keep my hands from flapping awkwardly and my face from becoming a mask of concentration. This made me anxious and overconcious and prone to silly mistakes, which are not easily masked in tap.
In tap I built up a growing friendship.

I tried to go to devotional, but there wasn't one. The girl I went with left me sitting alone.
They played an old devotional from 1994, and I felt inspired.

I took my American Heritage test today. I was really nervous. I got an 82%
That was worse than I wanted but better than I probably deserved. I'm so grateful for the help of my Heavenly Father with my studies.

I went for a very long exploring walk today.
I gained a few blisters.
I shed a few worries.
I found peace.

I tried to go to the temple today, but it was closed.
Instead, I had a scintillating conversation with a new friend.

It really made me think.
And I am grateful.

I am grateful for the people who have been sent into my life.
I am grateful for my opportunities, for my talents, and for my time.
I am grateful for a loving Father who knows what I need even as I whine to Him about what I want.

So are you guys, like, best friends?

The answer to this question, suprisingly, is no.
We're not best friends.
We're something better.

Carissa was the first person I met when I moved to San Diego. She has been a part of my life ever since. We have so many inside jokes, it almost feels like another language, and I can be myself around her. We were always friends, but never Best Friends. She wasn't the first person I would call when I wanted to hang out. I didn't gush to her about everything going on in my life. I probably took her for granted a lot, but she was always there.

Sometimes she was the only one there.

When we went on the East Coast Trip, we ended up as roomates. We didn't really plan on it, but we both signed up late and decided to go together. That's pretty much what happened with college. We didn't even consider rooming together for the longest time.
I'm so glad we did, though.

College has been a bit of a shock for me. It's not what I expected, but it's what I needed. The same could be said for rooming with Carissa.

I expected midnight gigglefests and secret sharing. I expected long talks. I expected deep philosophical conversations that shifted our paradigms.
There has been some of those moments, but they have not been the most important moments.
That has never been the basis of our relationship.


I don't have to pretend for her. I don't have to act like I have everything together. I can fall apart in front of her and she still loves me.
I struggle to show her that I appreciate her. I often express how glad I am that we decided to room together, but the sentiment is probably drowned out by other words. I talk a lot more than I listen. I complain and I rant and I whine.

I treat her like I take her for granted.

I hope she knows I don't.
I hope she knows that there isn't anyone else in the world who I would rather room with this year.
I hope she knows that I think she is one of the strongest, most grounded girls I know.
I hope she knows that I look up to her.
I hope she knows that I love her.

So I talked with another counselor today

It's been a long journey, and I haven't even begun yet.

I've pretty much known what I want to do since I was in middle school.
Well, I've always known I want to be a stay at home mom, but everyone needs a backup plan.
My back up plan has been unfolding for a while. In middle school, I decided I wanted to be a psychologist. I love learning about social trends and cognitive patterns and using that information to better understand myself and to more effectively love my friends.
By my Freshman year of High School, I knew I needed to work with children. I thought about working with LDS social services. Later, I took Child Development. I interned at several elementary schools, preschools, and daycares. I disagreed with some of the disciplinary choices made by the daycare providers. I realized I would never be satisfied being a child psychologist if I couldn't gaurentee that I could alter their home environment.
I decided I wanted to work as an advocate for children with learning disabilities. As an advocate, I would be working with parents who wanted to take action and to do as much as they could for their child. As an advocate, I could make a tangible difference.
To become a legal advocate involves lots and lots of school. Law school. The more education I sought, the less accessible I would become to the parents who needed me most. I would most likely be working with affluent parents against the already floundering school districts. I most certainly wasn't aiming for that. However, I could choose to be a public interest lawyer. I could represent the school districts in a plea to the state. I could write for grants. I could fight for better programs, more individualized teaching styles, even throw in some fights to keep the arts in schools.
I could make such a difference.

Turning Leaves

Classes start tomorrow, and I find myself thinking how much has changed in just one year.
I'm in Utah! I no longer tell directions by the ocean, but by the sunset and the mountains. Being a Latter Day Saint doesn't make me unique. [Heck, being an opera singer and fluent in French wouldn't make me unique here]
I've been eating healthier, and I feel great.
I'm growing closer to my Heavenly Father every day, and I love it!
I'm trying to be less superficial about how I choose my friends.
I'm finding peace in silence.
For the first time in my life, I'm actually looking forward to school starting!