Slow down turbo...

I would love to, really I would but alas, slowing down is apparently not an option right now.  So I guess I just keep on, keeping on, and hope I make it through this next little bit.  By the way, when I say little bit, I'm talking the next few years.
You know when you are graduating from high school, which may have been some time ago for some of us, they always talked about your plans.  So what do you do when you have reached a point in your life that you don't have a plan for what you'll be doing in five years.  What if you have no idea?  My life is totally coming together really, really, really fast.  I graduate on Thursday and Friday...weird.  I leave for Syria in 9 days and will be there for the majority of the summer.  Then I start grad school in August.  It's weird to look at these MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR events in my life and then realize that in a mere 5 years, they will all be over and old memories.  Even grad school, God willing, will be way over in 5 years.
Guess the height and difficulty of the mountain depends on perspective.  It's like the 200 yard freestyle.  Depending on how you view the race, you can see it as a sprint or a distance event.  To be honest I never really quite mastered that race. :)  Hope I do better this round. :)

Where did that panic button go?

I leave for Syria in...

wait for it...

13 days.

I am really starting to freak out a little bit.

I go from excited to freaked out to nervous to happy to euphoric to exhausted,

and then promptly to bed.

So there you go.

On a less exciting note I graduate from university in 7 days.

True story.

Gosh I'm a mess at the moment.

So, there you go.

Oh!  Otis moved in.

Don't remember Otis?

How rude!

Because Otis is awesome!

We have super good fun together

including but not limited to:

Making books for dummies (excluding the sillies in the picture)

Hitch-hiking in prohibited areas

and performing sweet Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon high fives

So I'm excited to be living with Otis.  

We will be more than likely having a lot of good fun together,

as we finish up school.

So maybe not so much fun as we will survive the school year.

Because misery loves company!

Just kidding, 

we hope it will be like this by the end of the year.

Adios!

How was your spring break?

True, for the first time since I got to BYU I had a spring break. 

We won't talk about how I only had a spring break because I finished my one and only class this semester over Independent Study.

The important thing was that I had a spring break.

So what did I do this spring break?

I'll make you a list.

Because I like lists.

1. Hung with the fam.  The extended family actually.  It was nice.  We have the same last name.  Most similarities end there, but that is the beauty, you love them anyway. :)
2. Got accepted to grad school.  I am so unbelievably excited/scared.
3. Bought new hiking boots, a water purifier and a lifetime membership to REI.  Some people may not find this exciting.  That's to bad for them because I sure do.
4. Found a basement kitchen for the basement apartment Otis and I will be sharing.  Talk about divine intervention.  For less then it would cost to get the appliances, Otis and I will have beautiful cherrywood cabinets, granite counter tops, and stainless steel appliances that all miraculously fit the kitchen area in our basement within 1/2 of an inch.  No joke.  
5. Found ridiculously, cheap, durable porcelain tile that is an incredibly close match to the natural travertine stone throughout the house (matching the tile was a requirement).  This Thursday the tile will be delivered, Friday we will install it and Saturday we will pick up the miracle kitchen.
6. My wonderful Aunt Karen turned 30.  You would never guess by looking at her, but a wife and mother of two adorables has to get older sometime.
7. Moved Karen and Nate to his mothers in preparation for them getting their new home.  Heartbreaking but every new chapter unfortunately has to start with change.

So there you go.  Spring break super busy.  An even busier week this week, but it is ok...I like it.

Oh, and here is a wonderful picture of my wonderful new hiking shoes courtesy of rei.com.

I got into grad school...

True story.  

I was thinking about how I got to this point.  We are constantly told that small decisions and events have the potential to drastically change our lives.  Here is one of mine.

Don't worry, even though it was only a year ago I'll start it with once upon a time.

Once upon a time, I was registering for classes, something just didn't feel right and so I stayed up late searching through the online catalog, trying to find the solution to my unease.

I came across a class--An Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology

The unease I had felt for some time disappeared.

I felt that I had found my answer.

I had heard rumors about the professor teaching the class, she was apparently one of the hardest professors in the department.  

But I thought: I can do this, I'll work really hard.

So when, despite my Herculean effort, I got a D on my first test, I was a bit...hmmm, devastated.

But I didn't give up.

I resolved to work harder than I ever have in my life,

Along the way I learned how I learn.

The way I approached my papers, schoolwork, studying, memorizing, and testing completely changed.

The next midterm approached.  

I was terrified.

I asked everyone I knew to pray for me.

I was terrified...I mean really, really petrified.

I went into the test at 2:30 in the afternoon.

I was amazed, the blank pages of my test booklet became quickly filled with artifacts, sites, dates, deities, connections, and pages upon pages full of every single fact I had learned.

I was ecstatic.

Unfortunately, this plethora of information took a great deal of time.

About 7 hours.

At 9:30 pm I started to shake, see spots and I had only finished my rough-draft for the essay part of the test.

I wrote a hurried note of apology and explanation to my professor, turned in my test, and ran out of the building, very, very ill.

I was devastated.

I felt that I had failed.

After a weekend of anxious anticipation for the embarrassment I would surely face the next week,

I went into my class,

I apologized to my professor,

she was very understanding of my plight but didn't understand why I was so distraught,

considering I had gotten 103% on the test.

No joke.  

Those pages of inspired "fluff" saved my grade.

To make an even longer story short, I have taken 2 classes from her,

besides that first test I have never gotten less than 103%.

I went from being her worst student to being one of her most improved students.

Improved being an incredible understatement.

Shortly after that second test she mentioned her project in Syria.

She mentioned it almost every time I met with her over the next year, asking me to go with her once I had graduated.

Also, during the second class I took with her, she encouraged me to apply for graduate school.

Looking back

that experience is a major turning point that led to the path I am now on.

In 17 days I graduate from university.

In 23 days I am going to Syria with that same professor.

In a few short months, I will be attending grad school.

A dream I've always had but never, never, never thought was possible.

This woman has changed my life.

Those who prayed for me in that horrific second midterm, changed my life.

By very small and sometimes difficult means, God changed my life.

Yep, by small and simple things shall great things come to pass.

Even if those small things include a seemingly meaningless class and a bombed test.