Thinking About 2012

2012's Memorable Moments

• Turning Apartment 54 into a canopy fort and camping out in it for weeks.
• Taking my sister Lauren out for her birthday, just me and her.
• My grandparents' 60th anniversary dinner.
• The end of the drive to San Diego when Mallory and I ran straight into the ocean even though it was dark and we'd been in the car all day.

• Helping at Feed America in San Diego.
• Eating swordfish tacos on the pier at Imperial Beach.
• My parents driving to Logan to be with me when I needed them.
• Dancing on our balcony with glow sticks to Rihanna.
• Going to the Festival of Colors.

• Singing Bohemian Rhapsody with about 15 other people at Pizza Pie Cafe's karaoke night.
• Getting a surprise scholarship that magically covered almost the exact cost of my flights to and from Samoa.
• Meeting Erin Gruwell, one of my heroes. (The Freedom Writers' teacher)
• Getting my first passport.
• Kissing the Merlin statue to become a Merlin's Aggie.

• Jumping into the fountain on campus on the last night of my junior year.
• Graduating from institute!
• Ninja night.
• Learning how to make vereneky with the Klishkos.
• Standing on top of the wind caves.

• Going rock climbing with Mallory and Kaitlin.
• Sitting on the garden fountains at the Springville Art Museum with Taylor. 
• When a snake slithered across my mom's foot at the reservoir. 
• Teaching S.I.
• Flying over the Samoan islands in a tiny plane.
• Staying with a family in Pago Pago - every single thing about their grandmother.
• Watching the final fautasi race on Samoa's 50th Independence Day

• Swimming under the Sauniatu waterfall.
• My tearful goodbye at the shelter...making friendship bracelets with the kids...one of the girls running upstairs as we were getting in the car and racing back with a gold chain to give to me as we left.

• Swimming with sea turtles in Savaii...Elder Mariner's reaction to the turtles, especially.
• The woman at the blowholes in Savaii who showed us how to shoot coconuts out of them and to call out to the waves.
• Playing hide-and-seek with Tasi, Josiah, Liam and Lance.
• Climbing down the ladder into the To Sua ocean trench.
• When the students at Pesega sang "My Girl" to me and gave me flowers.

• Eating breakfast in a school in the rainforest with the first Samoan woman to earn her PhD, who just also happens to be an amazing teacher.
• Watching a fire dancing show in a tiny seaside restaurant.
• Sliding down a waterfall.
• Seeing the Laie, Hawaii temple. The way it looked at night.

• Jumping off the jumping rock at Waimea Bay. 
• Everything about the Polynesian Cultural Center, but especially the large group of Japanese people trying to hula.
• Seeing an eel while snorkeling in Shark's Cove.
• Seeing fireworks from the plane as we left Hawaii.
• Celebrating my 21st birthday at the lake and getting my ukulele.
• Meeting Rachel at the airport when she came home from Taiwan. We were waiting at the bottom of the escalator with a cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber and a ukulele parody, but I ran up the stairs to hug her.

• Standing over Bryce Canyon with my cousins.

• Sleeping outside with Elizabeth in the middle of nowhere, AKA Junction, Utah. Hearing a screech owl all night and following it around.
• Geocaching in abandoned houses in the desert.
• Making wishes in the City Creek fountain.
• Going down the Avalanche Racers at Seven Peaks over and over and over again.
• Watching the sunrise on the beach in Florida.

• Climbing the St. Augustine lighthouse.
• Seeing a stingray from the pier in Jacksonville. Listening to live music on the boardwalk. 
• Watching the Olympics every night until 2 pm.
• All three of my education students in the writing center passed their writing exams!
• Meeting Sister Dalton and getting to talk to her in her office.
• Going to the farmers' market in Salt Lake. The guy who brings an old piano on his bike.
• Lying on top of a water tower in the mountains with lots of friends, looking at the stars and laughing.

• Spending Labor Day at Bear Lake.

• Going down a giant slip and slide with ten people.
• Going to the Brigham City temple open house.
• When Jeff's pants ripped in the writing center because I asked him to make a more dramatic entrance.
• Cliff jumping at Bloomington Lake.

• Teaching Relief Society.
• Listening to the drums in our African Dance class.
• Having the whole Fun Center to ourselves to play laser tag at midnight with roommates and friends.
• Getting lost hiking the Crimson Trail.

• Trick-or-treating on Halloween.
• Teaching 9th graders at Logan High.
• Voting for the first time! 
• Making our apartment "Thankful Tree."
• Meeting our adopted grandma, Polly.
• Decorating our apartment for Christmas.
• Every time I was in the Spectrum for Aggie basketball.
• Deciding to serve a mission while in the Logan temple.
• My meetings with the bishop and stake president about my mission.
• Getting to tell all the people I love most about my decision. When Abbie and I told each other on the same day that we had decided to go on missions...on the same day.
• Hiking Adam's Canyon with Micaela. 

• Reading with kids at the Hyrum library.
• Taking Janie on a date to the dinosaur park carnival on her birthday.
• Firepits in the sandbox with my family.
• How close we got to the elephants at the zoo on Thanksgiving.
• Being in Temple Square and sitting in front of the Christus statue with my roommates.

• Going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert for the first time.
• Reading The Whale Rider. 
• Singing at Janie's baptism.
• Mallory's mission farewell.
• Howling at the moon in the snowy mountains. 
• Spending the last hour of 2012 playing extreme spoons in the church office building.

What I Learned During 2012

• That I am in charge of my own happiness. 
•  That I will never again define myself by a relationship to another person because I will always belong to God more than to anyone else.
• That the best moments in my life will happen outside of my comfort zone.
• That traveling really is everything it's cracked up to be.
• That I can forgive.
• That my family will be there for me and that I can always come home.
• That God's plan is always better than mine.
• That I really do want to be a teacher.
• That it's okay if people walk in and out of my life, and it's okay to get close to people I may never see again. Everyone we meet becomes a part of us.
• That even though it's dishonest to say "I love you" unless you're sure you mean it, it may be just as dishonest to not say "I love you" if that's what you feel, even if it doesn't quite make sense yet.
• That I can go on a mission even if I don't feel like I'm the missionary "type."
• That my life is going to be beautiful because that's the way I want it to be.