What the h@$#, check your email.

Here's what I have learned.

I am NOT normal.

I will NEVER be normal.

EVER.

And neither will my two best friends, Cecilly and Kristie. We don't stop. Ever.

Cecilly and Kristie entered in a Case competition for Kraft. I have actually never heard of case competition until now. And here's the great part. I got to really use my design skills to the max. I designed a bag, heck I designed about 3 or 4 ads for the FRIGGIN Wheat Thin Stix.

And I realized how much I care for design, how much I will do anything for things that I hold dear to me. We all joked about how we are blowing off school to do this Kraft competition. And guess what, it totally worked. We got top three.

NO WAY RIGHT?!?!?!? NO FREAKING WAY. We we suprised that we made it to top 12. Sure we designed some good slides and had some cool ideas, but top three?

Kristie captured the moment perfectly, "What the hell, check your email."

We were rocked. Everything that could have gone in our presentation, did.

Never know what you'll find

Yesterday I went to the restroom and I was minding my own business, (aka thinking about how much I needed to do in a short amount of time, and how I was going to accomplish it--aka focusing on ME)

Then, out of nowhere, I heard a small voice, "How are classes going for you?"

I almost bolted out of there because I normally hate talking to people anywhere, especially in the bathroom.

I looked and it was an elderly woman, with a sweet smile waiting for my response. Grreeeat. Now I HAD to talk to her. There was no getting out of this one. Poop.

Then, I decided that I may have something to learn from this elderly woman, and if not, why not enhance my people skills? So I took the leap, and I did go out of my comfort zone.

And guess what? I learned something from this sweet, old lady. We ended up talking for about 15 minutes. I never found out her name, but I just learned some little things, I learned to LOVE school, to always follow my dreams, and to never pass up an opportunity (no matter how small it may seem).

She had just graduated from Humanities because she had never finished school. She made me promise to always go forward with my dreams. To never let anyone get in my way. And I think the boy I've found will always be there to help me in my dreams, even if I make him wait. And that makes him all the more attractive to me.

And that really inspired me, I have a renewed sense and desire to go to law school. I honestly don't care where, I would love to go out of state, anywhere. But I think that this year of no school will benefit me in ways that I can't imagine.

This friendly lil' chat really made an impact on me. It's so interesting to realize how seemingly simple conversations can really change you--for the better.

BIG BREATH...INHALE...EXHALE....it's over.

HUNGER . BANQUET. IS. OVER.

Countless hours of work, stress levels that have sky rocketed, and learning oh-so-much, has finally ended. HUNGER BANQUET 2011 is over. And it was successful--more than 2 people went! It was more like 700! And for a BYU event, I would say that is pretty gosh-darn good.

Considering everything that happened, we did it. WE DID IT.

It all started when the speaker died. I am not even joking. DEAD. Kaput. Along with our theme of the hunger banquet. We started scrambling for a theme, then it hit us. PIECE BY PEACE.

Fitting.

We thought we were ready to go.

Then, the unthinkable happened, the person that was supposed to be in charge of the logo dropped off the face of the earth. Great. What were we going to do now?

This is where people's true colors came to light, and I discovered so many things about myself. I have found out that I am a task-master. I enjoy being in charge, I like to do things my way. But, I am also good at getting people to help me. I enjoy working with large crowds that I am in-charge of. I discovered that Cecilly, although she gets tired, doesn't give up on things. She is very practical and knows when enough is enough. And I discovered that Carlos is someone that I respect beyond words, he is someone that is true to his word and will not let me down. I discovered that Andrew Galloway is a patient and caring person (who has creative ability beyond comprehension). I discovered that Andee Gempler is a hard-working girl that is very dependable.

I found out that the combination of people was a recipe for success.

We pulled an all-nighter and we created a logo. The logo was truly done piece by piece. We got about 30 freshmen to help us create a puzzle (1500 pieces) and most worked all night.

Then, we found that the place where the Hunger Banquet had been held was not going to be able to host our event. Crap. We started scrambling for a venue. Then we found it, but to our dismay, 'twas only ONE night. (The hunger banquet is usually two nights). But we thought we could beat it--we could do this.

THEN, we find that BYU didn't even want us to have the event. SERIOUSLY??? So we could not start advertising because what if the event got cancelled?

This was all happening about 2 weeks before the Hunger Banquet was to go on. Advertising was hurting--real hard. We printed off 10,000 fliers---to our dismay---we found that instead of two events, we were going to cut down to just one.

Then the price was upped to $9 bucks. That was ridiculous. NO way is a BYU student going to pay that kind of money. I fought to drop the price to $7 and we compromised at $8. I think that made a difference--let's hope.

After all of that--we had about a week and a half to advertise. Ten days.

And you think it's over--NOT. We had Brigham Square reserved for an event that we were going to put on--o guess what? Our event was cancelled. We could not hold it in the square. SERIOUSLY????

THen we find that our tickets could not be sold at the Wilk info desk--they had to be sold at the Kennedy Center. Poop.

After all of these things--I got to enjoy a wonderful event. It actually happened.

After the countless hours--I got to sit back and see the awesome event. It was so cool to realize what people can accomplish when they work together. Especially students. We were all doing this on the side. This was a extracurricular thing that everyone devoted time to--we all had school, work, and other things going on. Being able to see all that we had accomplished was amazing.

*Lights dimming, music playing*
We came out carrying rice and beans, hot dogs and chips, and salad and lasagna; representing the lower, middle and high class. It was awesome.

I will never forget the feeling of accomplishment that I felt when it was over. The relief that I felt and the sadness that I felt.

I was so happy to learn the things about myself. And it was just such a building event.

Here's to Peace by Piece.

Realizations

I forgot why I love swimming so much, it helps me think, when I swim, my body takes over on auto-pilot and I can just think I had some pretty awesome realizations. Well, they weren't awesome, they were just, kind of sobering.

1) I hate the way I look right now. I hate hate hate it. I hate the way that I feel when I walk outside, I just hate everything about it. I hate that when I get ready, I don't feel like I am good enough.

2) I HATE my major. I know I can't get over it, but it was the stupidest decision ever.

3) I feel bad being around Carlos because I look so gross all of the time.

4) I feel inadequate compared to everyone around me. I don't stand out at all.


Now, how am I going to fix this?

According to one of my friends, I am going places. This is cool. Cecilly doesn't know how much that meant to me.

Well, things are looking up, I am got a job as a sports counselor . And as of an hour ago, I just got an internship for a Internet Safety Project. !!!

Things are looking up!

But, how am I going to fix myself?!?!? I HAVE ONE MONTH!

Ok, well, less. I HAVE 35 days to look my best for graduation. THIRTY FIVE DAYS!!!!!

What am I going to do in the 35 days?

1) NO SWEETS


2) MONDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY: workout in the morning (do cardio) and at night do gym. Tues and thursday, work out

3) NO SNACKS after MIDNIGHT (which is a pitfall)

I am going to be looking good for graduation! HERE WE GOOOOOO!

Summ up YO life...

Sum up the past two weeks in one sentence:

A spectacular, imaginative 14 days which I did not anticipate at all.

1) I still have managed to convince a wonderful man that I am worth his time. Every time I am with him, I want to be better. I want to be the person that he sees every time he looks at me. We have had so many fun times and it's hard to believe it's only coming up that we have been dating for 3 whole weeks! Seems like an eternity in BYU time. :)

2) Kisses are wonderful. I had my first kiss with my man in a very cliche BYU area…but no matter, it was spectacular. Although he DID steal the first one, I was secretly hoping that he would. For me, it is weird if a guy asks me to kiss me, just DO it already. And then we can laugh about it later.



3) Best friends are the BEST. I have had some ups and downs with the bestie..but that's what it's all about. We know when enough is enough. We can sleep in different places and know that it's ok. We can stay up until 1 am singing about people and laughing. We can go stay at Kim's and have fun--no matter what we are doing. We can always have conversations that make us better--even when they are at the gym on a friday night. We can leave a bag of groceries outside for three hours and not get mad.



4) Things ALWAYS manage to work out--no matter what. I have had a rough time with the parentals because of the whole boyf thing, but IT'S OK. Because I LIKE him. Novel idea eh Watson?

5) People can disappoint and amaze you all in one day. I am an advertising co-chair for the Hunger Banquet, and let me tell ya, there has been no END to the stress. For one, we lost our logo person (which secretly, i was ok with because it gave my design skills a chance to shine (although I have none) and it really worked out). Carlos' roomie was a graphic designer and we honestly pulled off a miracle. There were about 20 freshman that stayed until three am to finish the graphic. Most people don't realize that it is a photo that we took.



6) Disney is GOING!!!! Instead of seven months, I decided to only go for four months. I think it is going to be the better choice because I will get to go with Cecilly and Kristie! Woo hoo hoo!

7) Time heals all things. I was able to have a good conversation with my friend James, even though it was somewhat awkward, I was able to realize that I really am over him and I am so happy with my life right now. Yes, it will always be a lil' weird because we used to like each other, but I am so over being weird about it. I have accepted the fact that he is really good friends with Whitney and Amy and that even though I am sad it's not me he's good friends with, I will see him no matter what and that I can't be bitter, just happy for him and live my life.

8) I love being in command. I know that sounds really bossy or whatnot, but being the one in charge, the one responsible, really changes my perspective.

9) I regret with my whole being majoring in history. WHAT THE F WAS I THINKING?!?!? I have so many more talents in other areas--such as design and negotiation--history was a FAIL. But that's ok, that just makes me more motivated to hone my skills in design and persuasion. Heck, when I am a lawyer, I will save money because I will be able to design my own logo and advertising!

10) I LOVE LISTS. I LOVE CHECK LISTS. SO MUCH. I can't get anything done if I don't have a check list.



11) Cleaning does change your outlook on life. I spent almost all of Sat cleaning (ignoring my SO) but it really helped me get back on track of what I need to do. It's funny how having one part of your life organized helps other aspects of life.

All in all, it's been a very stretching couple of weeks, but I wouldn't have it any other way.