If someone has ever told you that everything happens for a reason, they're probably right.

The days are so different now.

Brett, I'll miss you man. I can't believe you're gone--I won't even get in to that.

Even though I'm staying in Helaman, it just feels like a completely different place. The people that were here aren't anymore; the life and spirit that were around are nowhere to be found. It's not the same, but I guess it's time for a change anyway.

I made it to my basketball class at 8am this morning, on time nonetheless. It was a good experience and I'm really excited to get to go in the future. It will be good for me. Why?

Here's the thing: if you ever feel like you need to see something funnier than the funniest SNL skit you've ever seen, then put a basketball in my hands and tell me to dribble and run up and down a basketball court. I guarantee that you will be rolling (yes rolling) on the ground in pain. So this... is good for me.

My biology class was a joke. I sat there for two hours pondering my existence because that, along with facebook, was much more intriguing. I did get to meet a really nice girl who I will be associating with much for the rest of the semester I think. I'm excited for sure.

My religion class was amazing, I've never been so inspired to want to read the standard works... ever. I literally just sat down for nearly two and a half hours today and just read from the New Testament. Crazy! That's so untypical of me even though it should, conversely, be expected. It's so nice to have that class with the old wardies, I mean what were the odds? Four of us in one class?

Weight training was LOTS of fun haha. We did a strength test today to see where we all were at and by the end, my roommate Chandler was absolutely exhausted. He looked at me and was like... hey dude are you tired? Because I'm beat. I just looked at him and laughed. Doing one set of each workout hardly even made me the least bit tired haha. He's never lifted weights in his life though, so he has an excuse.

Afterwards, I came in my room to finish laundry and then went to dinner in the deserted canc. I hate being here, its so depressing. It just makes me want to go home ever more, but I guess that's not really an option anymore is it.

After dinner I stopped by Preston's room and saw that he was still dying from earlier when I previously saw him, so I sat by his beside until about five minutes ago when he finally started to get better. He was thinking of going to the hospital if things didn't start to shape up, but thankfully they did. I wouldn't have been able to sit through that trauma anyway.

It's weird. I feel like I should be posting a picture of me and Mike now (yes that's grammatically correct) but he's not exactly down the hall anymore. Take me back to yesterweek, right now.

It's been awhile. Since the semester ended, I've been idle but still very busy with things other than school. My long weekend was well... interesting.

Getting to Vegas late Wednesday night was almost surreal. Jordan and I got to my house near eleven at night after what seemed like the longest, most gloomy trip I'd ever been on. Leaving BYU was really hard, even though I knew I was coming back. The year was over and all my friends were going to their perspective homes across the nation. For the most part, I wouldn't see these kids for years if even ever again. I'm never really good at goodbyes. I was really lucky to have Jordan with me because I would have just been depressed the whole weekend filling trash cans upon trash cans with kleenex.

After we got in we decided to get straight to bed because I wanted to make it to Palo early the next morning to bid farewell to all my teachers for the next couple years. We needed to get up by six in the morning (goodness) but of course, although we went to sleep at midnight we didn't get to bed until close to four sharing secrets and this-is-what-I-did-when-I-was-stupid stories.

My dad woke me up the next morning and we made our way to the Palo with my little brother. I felt really, really bad dragging Jordan around to go see all my teachers because we were so exhausted and I knew he could care less. It was eerie being back at that time at Palo and it really just made me realize how ready I was to leave that place. No matter how much I miss being a big part of that school, I would never go back. After saying hello to a few teachers we went to breakfast at Einstein's,  got Mama White some flowers at the Vons right next door, and then went back to Palo for round two. It was kind of funny to watch Jordan get immersed in Summerlin culture. Summerlin is well, it's own little world infested with the highest class of individuals you'll probably find on the west coast. If you think that's an overstatement, you are highly uninformed, trust me and for that matter, Jordan too because now he knows. The land where every other car that passes you is a Jaguar, Mercedes, or Lexus and where 16 year-olds don't drive used Honda Civics but brand new Hummers and Ferraris. But that's aside of the point.

Anyway after spending nearly the whole day at Palo, we went to Auntie Liz's to have lunch and of course, she treated us with my favorite: Auntie's fajitas. She's seriously the best cook in the family and I was so glad to spend lunch with her. I also had to say bye to grandpa too since I probably wouldn't see him before my mission. After, we came back home and took a happy-nappy (as my old roomslice would say) and then went out to dinner at P.F. Changs.  I was pretty sure that's when Jordan fell in love with my quirky family. I was slightly embarrassed the whole time but people seem to love watching my family's diverse personalities in action. I would try to explain it to you but instead I'll just invite you to dinner sometime and you can see for yourself; it's sure an experience. Later on that night, I treated Jordan to see Blue Man Group because well, you just can't go to Vegas without watching some kind of show on the strip. It's the fourth time I've seen the show in the past two years and it never gets old. Without a doubt, he enjoyed it and I was really happy. You can't not enjoy the Blue Man Group. We got a terrible picture on my phone because I forgot my camera; he even marked my forehead and Jordan's cheek. I think they are so great because they accent awkwardness and transform it into the greatest form of entertainment and comedy. We made it back late that night and hit the hay and fell asleep without talking for more than an hour, probably for the first time ever.

Friday was gay. From here on out pretty much, the weekend was gay. People were gay. Plans were gay. Everything was just... gay.

We woke up around ten the next morning and decided that going to the gym was completely necessary because we were gaining lots and lots of weight (or at least he was because I don't seem to have that luxury). So we went and worked out for a bit then went on a little run (which might as well have been a full marathon for Jordan) (sorry Jordan) (I was just kidding) (I still love you) and then we stopped by Taylor's house to pick up some things that I forgot in her car. Jordan was disappointed that we didn't get to see Andre Agassi playing tennis since that seems to be a common thing for Taylor's neighborhood. I had a dental appointment coming up pretty quick so we didn't have long to mess around there. We headed back and Jordan got some alone time while I went to get my gums annihilated by that hook thing (I think it's called a scaler?).

We were supposed to go to Mandalay Bay that day but that fell through because of timing and traffic. So we just went shopping at the Meadow's Ghetto's Mall and then to some other places where we found Jordan the SICKEST (yes it looks that good on him) Ralph Lauren polo. I wish you could see him in it. It would make you weak-in-the-knees, I promise. Later that night we went and got some frozen yogurt at Yogurt Land with Taylor and her little sister Jaden. It was a nice little short get together but they had to be home early and so we ended up with nothing to do. I tried really hard to find things to do that night with Jordan, but aside of a few parties that were bad news for us, there wasn't much going on. I felt horrible. It probably didn't help that I was still depressed from goodbye's, so Jordan decided that we would just spend the night in and watch a movie.

We watched Forever Strong about a rugby team in Highland, UT. I'd summarize it for you but this blog is already starting to be way too long. It's a great movie though, and you should watch it. Something really interesting happened during the movie though. I've found that since I've gotten my mission call, weird things have been happening in my life. Lots of unexpected tragedies and lots of strong temptations. In the middle of the movie my phone started to go off the hook with girls asking for very strange things from me. Jordan and I just watched my phone vibrate off the hook as these three girls continued to text me the whole night.

Jordan was too tired to make it with to the gym with me the next morning so I woke him up a little later and we headed to Fashion Show mall to make up for an unsuccessful shopping spree the previous day. I got (finally) my own pair of Toms and another pair of shoes as well as some new tops. Then we headed over to Jason's swim meet. It really made me miss swimming a lot with all the excitement but again, not enough to go back. Afterwards, we got dropped off at Mandalay Bay to raid the beach with Natalie after not being able to make it the day before. We had a lot of fun in the wave pool and lazy river and Jordan got to layout for a bit (I skipped out on that one).

On our way home I called a bunch of BYU kids to come over and chill for the night to try to throw a little party for Jordan and see all the kids that I was missing from BYU. We wanted to go bowling that night too but mom ended up being too tired so we just stayed in and had a generic Corpuz family dinner coupled with retarded conversation and dumb jokes. After, I had to figure out our ride situation since our previous ride had bailed; after two hours of stressing things finally measured out. Ten o'clock rolled around and we waited for everyone to show up. Of course, no one came aside of Josh and Elina; the only two that ever come through in anything. It was nice being able to catch up and see Josh for probably the last time. Then after getting over the fact that everyone was being gay for the night, we decided to go and get frozen yogurt again. I was left again feeling like absolute crap. I was trying really hard to show Jordan a good weekend yet instead everything was falling through. I was a bit disturbed by the text messages I was getting now especially when one of the girls started to try to destroy my and Jordan's friendship. Weird right?

We got back to my house and decided to watch the Goofy movie and picked up some sweet quote's from it. I've never seen Jordan laugh so much in his life; for the first time that night I felt like I had done something right.

The next morning was stake conference which, of course, was hard to stay awake for since we were up until three the night before being ourselves (you can just assume that part by now). It was great to be able to see some people from church and hear some great talks. Afterwards we had lunch and then I took Jordan to mass to show him a little of my old religion. It was nice to be in a familiar place--for me, and both of us I guess for that matter, it just didn't feel right. When the mass ended, we went [in peace] to go see Jordan's family across town. They were great people and very intrigued to get to know me; it made me really happy.

We talked for probably a little longer than we should have and then made it back to Summerlin for fondu dinner at Auntie Liz's. We left in time to stop by the temple real quick which was really great. There's just no much more beauty in the world aside of the angels in the architecture of LDS temples. It was completely necessary since I was home to do fondu at Auntie Liz's--its like tradition. I was really sad that my cousin Farah was working that night because it's just not the same without her. It was still fun nonetheless though. After dinner we skyped baby Matthew and then made it back home so that Jason could get to bed.

When we got him, sh.. stuff hit the fan and the girl trying to butcher mine and Jordan's friendship (apparently because she was jealous?) (we don't know why she was doing it either) was pulling out all the stops. She really offended both of us so Jordan finally told her off and then we were done. She failed terribly and if anything just brought us closer together. So to her, thank you. Anyway we decided to watch Avatar since my parents just bought the Bluray, but I ended up just sleeping through it so we migrated upstairs and spent a typical, last night together.

I woke up early that morning to say bye to dad and Jason but then rolled back into bed for a few more hours. Even though I was just going to sleep in the car we were up pretty late the night before as usual. We ended up waking up around 9:30am-ish and then went to the gym for the last time. Afterwards we stopped by Palo to say bye to little Jack. I love that kid so much. I met him at the end of last year as one of the incoming freshman. He makes me want to be a good person and stay a good person so that I can be a good role model to him. He's going to do great things in this world, I know he will. Anyway afterwards we packed up, said bye to my mom, and that was it.

We got to Provo around 7:00pm last night and Jordan and my new roommate helped me move in. Here's a funny short story:

So I ended up in a random rooming situation again for Spring which I was absolutely not excited about. After we got my key at the canc and went to my new room I was just so worried that I was going to get a weird roommate that I wouldn't get along with. So I opened the door and lone behold, my new roommate was in there asleep. As he began to sit up to see who was coming in and the covers fell off his face, I nearly wet myself. I looked a little harder through the dark... it was Chandler! From my old hall! What are the odds? I lucked out big time.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the night moving in and getting stuff out of storage. Jordan and I had one last dinner together which he paid for himself... he hadn't caught on by now that I was going to pay for him the whole weekend because he was my guest still but whatever haha. Not much longer and Jordan was headed home and I was alone for the first time in a really long time.

It was really hard watching him leave. He had eased the pain of goodbyes so much and now saying goodbye to him was really a cherry on top. I mean, I know he's just an hour away, but he had been the source of all my comfort that weekend so naturally, I had a rather rough time after he left. After I finally got myself composed I finish moving in and got to bed.

This weekend wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be the best for Jordan, but it really wasn't even close. Everything I had planned fell through, people were bailing left and right, and things just didn't go how I wanted them to. I felt so bad, I couldn't even explain. The weekend I took Nyal and Preston things were just flawless and we had such a great time. I just wanted it to be like that, but it was a weird weekend with weird timing I guess. I was really disappointed with myself and felt really unappreciated but I guess there's no need to feel that way or make myself feel that way. I just wish it could have been better, but I guess things can always be better right?

School started today. Me and Chandler coordinated our schedules together and ended up having New Testament with all the old wardies! I was so happy to see Sterling and Jessie, you can't even imagine. Psychology will be killer but I think I'll stick to it. It's kind of nice to have a fresh start with this semester but at the same time I'm dreading doing work. Here we go again.

There's nothing left.

1. Time
2. Things
3. Finals
4. Friends

I ran around with my head cut off on Tuesday. I headed off to lunch and ran into Heather to say bye to her for the last time. I couldn't forget any about that girl, even if I tried. Not her beautiful smile, her eyes, or most importantly her sincere personality. She was one of the first girls I met at BYU during NSO. I vividly remember sitting in Taylor lobby hanging out with a bunch of random kids that I met that day and then seeing her walk in and literally becoming weak in the knees; I had to meet this girl. She was playing some strange game with uno cards and some random girls and of course I--being absolutely outgoing of course--decided I was going to stumble on their game, meet all of them, and get all their numbers even though I only wanted one as you can imagine. Ever since then we spent late nights running in the rain, going to concerts together, waking up early for breakfast, and just so many more things. I'm going to miss that southern girl-next-door more than I can even comprehend. I'll take from her a love for people and music.

I got in the canc and had lunch with Megan, Brittany, and Bri--my prime. They, as always, were an absolute riot haha, especially after Megan got a hold of my camera. These girls made my year and were such great examples to me. They changed my life so much more for the better. Seeing good, genuine girls that sincerely care about all their friends is so great. I met them all and really got close to them mostly at are ventures to Josh's house in Midway and on Bri's birthday 80s dancing. My year wouldn't have been the same without them. I could tell those girls anything and would drop everything to do anything for them. I'll take from them faith in true friendship.

Mike and I had our mission prep final next, that of which I could barely stay awake for. He did everything he could to keep me awake and finally gave up and just took me out with his smart water haha. I'm going to miss Brother Bott a lot. That was such a great class that I never failed to enjoy. I even got to announce my mission call in class finally. Anyway we made it out and Mike and I went to the bookstore to pick up some packing supplies to get me set for the night. Then it was time to say bye to Nyal.

Oh Nyal. Where would we be without his craziness? He made life... interesting to say the least haha. What a character and great friend who genuinely cared and was a complete goofball to always put a smile on your face. I seriously can't even comprehend where I'd be without him. I tried to tell him not to do anything stupid but well, that was a given haha. I'll take from him a consistent smile.

So after, I went in my room and decided that I needed to study for this PDBIO120 final that I just knew I was going to fail anyway. So I came to the conclusion that I was just going to give up, just go take the test, and stop worrying about it; so, I got up... and walked to the testing center. By the time I got there I had thought about it so much that I just couldn't do it. I couldn't willfully just do terrible on something. So I walked all the way back and had dinner with the regulars for the last time and then went to study with Mike for a bit before falling asleep on his bed. When eight o'clock rolled around we headed to Chipman to watch Glee... I wouldn't not recommend this episode for minors although it was absolutely hilarious. My favorite line from the whole show was definitely: I'm gay. She's black. We make culture. I would never aspire to either but hey, I guess that's an accurate statement today; not to offend anyone.

I made it back to Merrill after to say bye to Ben. It was way tight getting to see Ben at BYU this year especially after meeting him the year before. When I came for my band audition a year ago and to help Mat move back, I met Ben because he was on Mat's floor and one of his really good friends, so it was way tight to actually get to meet and hangout with him this year. He's a funny, funny kid that is also a great friend who was always there for me to give advice and just be a good friend. I'll take from Ben a light heart and heavy laugh.

It was Chelsea's birthday that night so next it was off to her birthday party down in Hinckley (poppin' day right?). I needed to make sure to say bye to all of the 242nd wardies! There are a lot of things I miss about my old ward, but those girls being the thing I miss the most. I'll take from them genuine caring.

By the time I made it back to Merrill it was nearly ten o'clock already and I needed to skype Jordan to tell him something so of course we talked for a whole hour until eleven... there was only one problem with that: I had to be packed with all my stuff in storage by midnight. So I gathered the masses of Merrill 1200 to help me pack and we were out of there in about 45 minutes which, mind you, is a record  considering how much junk I have. I'm so thankful I had them to help me because there's no way I could've done it by myself.

After we were finished, me, Brigham, and Mike went and ventured into the new dorm which actually was a lot of fun! The rooms are huge and its really nice. They have no lobby and its a completely different set up but it will for sure be really awesome.

That day was over and I made it to bed basically camping in my room with a suitcase and s.t.d. blanket.

Wednesday was really sad. I feel like BYU cried for us leaving today.

I continued with goodbyes and had breakfast with Brody today at this place call "Kneaders" were they have monstrous, all-you-can-eat french toast. I had one and a half and Brody had like... four I think haha. I just really wasn't happy and had an upset stomach from all the emotional trauma of saying goodbye to everyone. Breakfast was great and nice to catch up and it will be weird to lose touch with him and see him get married and what not. I'm really happy for him though. I wouldn't be much of anyone without him today if he didn't make sure I kept my nose clean.

I had room check-outs pretty soon after so we had to hurry back. Momma Moses was really lenient with everything--half of it was just because I cleaned so well I think. I bidded adieu to the RA and was off to talk my PDBIO120 test... On the way I got to see Laura, an RA from my old ward and said bye to her as well. She's just a crazy funny girl who was a great friend and I will miss her being around. I'll have to tell you her mattress domino story sometime. As for my test: I got handled. It's fine though. I got what I put into it. I'll take from Matt and Laura patience through late-night trials.

I caught up with Hayley after which was probably the best thing that happened to me in a really long time. It had been the first time Hayley and I got to talk things out and work things out for the better. Things were rocky between us but now they're nothing short of great. I love her so much; always have, always will, and I'm so happy for her and Christian getting married. They're so perfect for each other and will be great together. I hope and pray for the best for the both of them in years to come and hope that I can keep in touch with them. I'll take from them pure kindness.

I came back to the canc and ran into my regulars. I hadn't cried until this point. This group made my BYU experience. They were there for me through it all. I always had their prayers, love, and support. Meeting them at NSO on one of the first nights was one of the greatest things that could have happened to me at BYU. I'll never forget them and I'll miss them the most. I've never cried so hard in my life during a goodbye. I couldn't even express how to you how much love I feel from them. They're the best friends I could have ever asked for. I'll take from them strong friendship built on undisputed love.

I had lunch with Kaylee and the wardies after and said bye to all of them and then said bye to Aubrie. Aubrie was in my original fhe group [9] and was one of the only people I could relate to in that group. I'll never forget the day near the beginning of fall semester when I was having a really rough time and she called me over, remembered my name, and just wanted to talk and be better friends. That one simple act, echos in my head to this day. We've had so many great memories this year shopping, sharing jokes, and just being pals through it all (especially when talking about bad dates). I'll take from her class and thought for others.

It was finally time to bid farewell to 1100 & 1200 Merrill hall. It's going to be so hard to move on from these guys. They're all like brothers to me who've helped me, befriended me, and been there through it all. How blessed we were all to have each other. It was especially hard to say bye to my roomslice, Michael and Brigham. Mike [Swindle] was in a test and couldn't make it and I'm still really sad about that but I can't blame him for being responsible. I'll take from them brotherhood.

Now it's back home to Vegas with Jordan for the weekend before Spring.

I'll take from these past two semesters no regrets, just lessons learned.

I feel like I just was packing all my stuff to come to college yesterday. What?

By the way I just edited and added the videos to my previous post so you might want to check that out.

I woke up pretty late yesterday and just pretty much messed around getting pictures up and blogging until lunchtime. I had lunch with the regulars and then headed to the library to study with Taylor. We really didn't get much done as you can imagine. After a couple hours I had to call a quits and came back to get my mission prep final done for today. Then I had dinner and went to hike the Y with Aaron.

There really wasn't much to my day. I feel like it was almost a waste of one of my last days here at BYU. But oh well, it's over and done. Hiking the Y and hearing about all the tradition behind it was really cool. It's just one of those things that you kind of have to do while your at BYU and of course I had to wait nearly a whole year to do it. It took me and Aaron awhile because we just took our time getting up there, but it was definitely worth the work. That mountain is like legit vertical so it was decently tough but we made it just in time for sunset. It was quite the sight. We did that whole lay upside down thing on it and it was extremely trippy. I thought I was going to fall of the edge of the mountain haha. It was great though and I'm glad we did it.

I spent the rest of the night on facebook (of course) and then catching up for last days of pictures with Mike. It's kind of sad that tomorrow will be our last picture. I'm really sad and I'm going to miss that kid a lot. By the way he got a haircut and it looks dang good; thought you oughtta know.

Today will just be filled with studying, packing, and lots of goodbyes. I already had a couple this morning and its just really... weird. Its not exactly goodbye like "nice knowing you" but its too long to say "I'll see you soon!" you know? Two years is a lot of time but not really. Its just surreal. I'm weird because I hate goodbyes.

This is going to be a MONSTER blog, not that my other ones aren't huge to begin with anyway.

Let the madness begin.

Two finals down, and two to go.

Yesterday was a fairly productive day with loaded doses of pollen to appropriately set off my allergies. I studied for all of fifteen minutes for my math final and actually felt ready... so I stopped haha.

Zach and I decided we needed to go out on some sort of simple date before the semester was over so he promised to buckle down and ask a girl out for Friday night; for the first time... he came through! It actually ended up being really fun. We went and got some food from the creamery and had a semi-picnic at the top of the JFSB which was really nice and just had some friend-to-friend-to-friend bonding time. Alyssa informed us of all her embarrassing "falling" stories as Zach continued to argue the whole night that it just wasn't necessary for guys to open doors on dates. Then we ended up in the tanner building somehow and played Catchphrase for a little (boys against girls) and well... can you guess who won? The boys of course! Then we went to the last game in the volleyball game and watched BYU grind the trash out of the Matadors. We ventured back to Helaman, grabbed some ice cream, and then I had to call it a night because I had a final this morning at 7am, calc nonetheless.

Simple day but definitely good fun.

And well, simple day calls for a simple picture I think.

If I've ever illustrated myself as an idiot more, yesterday probably topped whatever distinction I previously made.

Aside, if you read my blog, you should follow my best friend Mat's blog of the things going on during his mission. His mom is really great and posts the emails of what's going on with him. Check it out: www.matsonamission.blogspot.com

I basically pulled an all nighter that night and am actually still doing okay for only have gotten two hours of sleep since. I'll probably fall over at some point for not getting hardly any sleep but I don't think I would be blessed with such an occurrence.

Anyhow after all the excitement the night before it was time to buckle down and get to business. I had reviews and study sessions planned all day with barely anytime to breath, the first one starting at 7am. What an early time to get up and study biology.

Breakfast then didn't end up being until about 10am which was actually not too bad. I ran into some people that I haven't seen in a very long time because of given circumstances. It was great to see them, be able to embrace, and be able to share my excitement with them; it had been way too long. I still love them and appreciate them despite all the hell I put them through and the difficulties we had. I hope that one day things will go back to how they were.

I then went to go see Brody because I knew there had to be some reason why he didn't come to my mission opening the previous night. Brody was one of my very first missionaries and is the one I keep in touch with most because well, he touched me the most. I sent him a text and never got a response the day before and I was really, really disappointed. I finally came to the conclusion that there was no way he could've not been there. He loves me too much to have missed it. So I went and saw him the next day only to find out that his phone had been disconnected because his parents didn't pay the bill. How timely right? I was right though, he would've dropped anything to be there. It was nice to be able to catch up with him and have him around this past year. I wish we could've spent more time together but it happens I guess, college life is busy and I can't be mad at someone for being responsible and taking care of theirself.  We concluded that he'd make it up to me with dinner next week so I failed to reject and took him up on the offer.

It was next time to catch up with Josh. Josh made it to my mission call the night before and I couldn't tell you how happy I was to see him. He's such a great friend and important figure in my life. If there's anything I miss about my old hall, its him. He's such a great example and such a strong, faithful person who sincerely cares about everyone he associates with... well most of them anyway haha. He's been there for me when I needed him the most and helped me through the troubles of leaving home the first semester in college. I've never looked into someone else's eyes and seen the light of Christ stronger in anyone else than his. It was his birthday Monday as I had previously mentioned and I forgot to give him his card! So I made sure to get that to him and got to catch up a bit to see how things were going. He's a great guy and I'll miss him the most from all the guys I've met this year.

Review, review, review was what the rest of my day saw. Funny story. So I had in my iCal that there was a MATH112 review at 1:00pm in 3104. So I headed over there... but when I got there I noticed that they were going over a different test than I expected and also were halfway through. So I looked up the review one more time and saw that it was actually at 2:00pm on the Math Lab website. Genius. Everyone probably thought I was crazy for coming that late. So I picked up my stuff and left to get some stuff done and came back to the room at 1:55pm for the next review... but the same guy and students were still in there. I figured they were just running a little late so I sat there with my exam and waited until 2 but they were... still there and not changing exams. Finally everyone left and I figured that the next TA and students were running late... after about 20 minutes I figured something was wrong and looked at the sheet again. Great. Good job Eric, check the time but not the room. It was the only review that wasn't in that room and was downstairs in 1104. How dumb can I get? Don't answer that question.

Anyhow I finally made it to that and successfully got nothing out of it because I ended up falling asleep through it. So I got up after wasting my time and headed to the gym to let out some frustrations, made it to dinner, and then went to the library to study with Zach and actually got a lot accomplished. We studied for nearly four straight hours and got side-tracked at little but who doesn't. We decided to be a little immature and throw half-salivated gummy worms at the window of the room we were in and get interesting looks from each passing person. Mine was pretty solid after a couple tries. Zach on the other hand had some issues haha.

Making it back to my room around midnight I noticed that Marie was on skype! It had been so long since I had talked to her so of course instead of writing my Philosophy final paper, I talked to her for a long time with some guys in my hall who know her. She's a great girl that basically owned my heart senior year as my secretary in student council. It was so nice to see her face and hear her laugh again. I miss her a lot and hope to see her soon.

Mike and I decided that we had enough studying for the day so we decided to... study even more! Not. Mike was on one last night just rolling insults at me left in right, I was rather confused haha. I'm going to miss this kid a bunch... especially his good looks haha. Here's our snapshot for the day.



Then me and Jordan planned out Saturday or attempted to with little details that we had late into the night as usual. Thanks to that I again got all 30 minutes of sleep to make it to swim, write my phil paper, an make it to my phil exam today and now its off to the races. I really don't even have time to be writing this. What am I doing with my life?

What a day.

Since its our last week here, I want to make sure to document everything so that I don't forget it!

Here's a spark notes version.

Monday:


Last day of class for me, wohoo! Sarah and I got up pretty early to go on a run and it was actually really nice! Definitely refreshing to go early in the morning and be awake in class. It was pretty sad to walk out of mission prep for the last time with Brother Bott but biology and and philosophy I was absolutely done with. I got all my homework done early that day and headed back to my room to finish A Walk to Remember since we didn't finish it the night before; me and Zach made our bracelets while watching it and hey, it actually wasn't bad! I felt like it could've ended better, but I mean not too shabby.

I was sad that I missed FHE that night but it was for a good cause I guess. It was Josh's birthday and Elina decided that we should throw a surprise dinner for him. After all Josh did for me and for all the times he was there for me, I couldn't afford to miss it so I sacrificed FHE for a good friend's birthday. Valid right? Weather was funky getting there, it was semi-nice during the day and then thundathundastormin at night. We somewhat pulled off the surprise but I mean Josh is a smart kid and he could tell it was kind of fishy haha. It was great to be with old friends from last semester and what not; Elina did a great job. I sure did a number matchmaking those two together eh? I smell wedding bells in the near future. Afterwards Jordan and I put together Taylor's invitation for the date on Saturday. It's going to be pretty legit I'm excited. He got her flowers and we made a crafty note to put with them--she really liked it! Of course, we stayed up forever talking as we do every night, that's just a given, happens without me needing to mention it.


Waste of a day. Jordan and I were up late the night before so I didn't wake up until 10am. Terrible. I made it to "Unforum" with Nyal and it was definitely a  great success. The theme was "BYU Tube" and it was this guy and girl studying in the library but procrastinating by watching "BYU Awards" on "BYU Tube" It was a great set up with great performances from Club Style, the Polynesian club, the "That's against the honor code" skit (favorite thing ever from NSO), and Y-Awards. It was definitely enjoyable and well put on. Afterwards I went back to my room and... slept haha then I got up, studied for a bit, and went to the gym. I made it back in time to grab dinner and make it to Matt's concert that of which I was thoroughly impressed! For a non-audition ensemble, the music was very clean with little error. A couple tuning and intonation issues here and there but only a hypercritical mind could identify them. After... Mike and I went to Chipman for the "Glee" premiere party with the girl wardies. It was... interesting but enjoyable at the same time. Anyway came back and did all the things I do every night; fill in the blanks.

I'm supposed to get my mission call today, its pretty crazy! Hopefully it comes in, the anticipation is killing me. But I mean we'll see. Hopefully I make it to then; staying up every night talking to J has kept me pretty tired but at the same time I can't complain. It's nice to have a good pal to talk to every day. I don't know where I'd be without him nowadays especially amidst all heck that broke lose. He's coming home with me next weekend to Vegas and I'm so stoked! We're going to have a legit weekend and I cant wait to show him how life is there. He's a good kid, and I'm more than blessed to have him around. But enough of praising him, he gets enough anyway from being such a champ. Yes its true, I think everyone needs to have a Jordan in their life.

It's been awhile since I've seen you. Well I'm back so don't fret.

Basically, I've been very uncompelled to write a new blog lately. Days have been average. School has been average. Life has been average. It is what it is I guess. Last full week of school: done.

But question? Did senioritis follow me to college? Looks like it did, because I haven't gotten nearly anything done this week. Studying? Fail. Class? Fail. Practice? Fail. Guess I need to figure things out quick though. Finals are only a few days away and I've yet to crack a book to begin to study.

This weekend however has been document material for sure. I've realized two things:

1. The 52nd Ward

2. A good great friend.

First, we'll take number two since writers never do that.

So this weekend Jordan and I decided that we needed to hangout, so.. we did. I went to great lengths to travel to see this kid... I road the bus to Salt Lake and then the train thing to get to the city. Crazy stuff. Living in the BYU bubble where everyone is smart, Mormon, and white was definitely not my experience on either. People were just... different. I'd say that's a good way to put it. It was an experience for sure.

Finally I got to Gateway and went around and shopped for a little bit waiting for Jordan. Here's a funny story. So I went into Brookestone to play around with the gadgets and such waiting for Jordan. Finally he told me he was there so I went out and attempted to respond to his text while walking out the door. As I walked out the door though, I noticed that I wasn't walking through the door just as soon as I hit a glass wall where I thought the door was. Anyway I decided not to look around and see who saw and just walked out hearing laughter in the background. Slightly embarrassing but definitely one for the books.

Anyhow Jordan and I decided to go trigger happy and went and found some great places in Salt Lake City to get some pictures. The pictures came out great and we had a lot of fun getting them. These are just some of my favorites. After we were finished we went to town at the mall, just as my allergies decided to kick in. We had dinner and bought some clothes to wear to Stephanie's party in Park City and then we were out of there. We stopped by a drug store to get some meds to calm down my pollen fever and then managed to get lost on the way up there somehow... probably because three of streets we had to navigate on had "Deer Creek" or I think it was "Deer Valley" in them. Pretty ridiculous. We eventually made it and both were so drugged out the whole time that neither of us really enjoyed it; it was great haha. We stayed pretty late just playing games and chillin', making new friends. Finally I decided it was time to go home to Jordan's and it took us a long two some odd hours to get there because we were both falling asleep the whole time. Luckily we made it okay.

Woke up late the next morning and Jordan took me back to BYU just in time for the ward activity. Our ward is so amazing. It's just so incredible how social and how interactive everyone is with each other. There are cliques but they definitely are not defined boundaries. Everyone loves everyone and that's what's important. We all met and caravan-ed to the Apple's for our last ward party. They had an amazing backyard with a great view of the valley and so many things for us to do: everything from tables to sit in, volleyball, swings, basketball, but most importantly, great company. We had a great surprise when Julie B. Beck showed up (General Relief Society President), mostly for the girls but I felt it a great honor to be around her as well. She's just one of those people (as with most church leaders I'd assume) that I was feet away from, but still could feel the love she had for us all. We had some great food followed by great dessert and then a great end of the year slideshow. Best part of the night, they handed out plate awards to every single person. Some of the awards were very creative and obviously took a very long time to put together. All in all, the night was somewhat depressing but a great way to end the year.

Today of course was Sunday and another social event for the 52nd ward to meet again. I always enjoy this day with the ward-ies and had a great time making cookies with Taylor tonight and getting  a sparknotes version of "A Walk to Remember." Ward prayer as always was great too; could've seen that one coming. We took a huge ward picture that came out as a masterpiece. It will be one that I show my children for sure. Its weird that its ending so quickly even if we still have a couple weeks-ish left. I guess we just need to make the best of what we have. It will be so hard to leave this ward and hall behind has well as the great friends I've made.

Megan gave a great spiritual thought today. She talked about how she had an experience of some sort and mentioned a saying that "angels come in the form of friends." Just thinking about how in this ward alone as well as my old ward, people have touched one another and how we've all welcomed each other into our lives to become better people. Each person has touched someone individually in their own way and I know that I'll take a piece of each person with me as I continue into the future. Of course things will never be the same, but all good things must come to an end. We still got some time left though. As Sarah Kron would say, "this ain't over til we say it's over."

This weekend made me realize how much I miss my family, especially skyping with my youngest cousin Matthew who is turning two tomorrow. Bu that's neither here nor there. I successfully got nothing done today. I guess it was just one of those days? Clouds, snow, and rain do nothing but make me want to curl up in bed and read books or something. I don't even like books. Strange right?

I got done with class today and came and took a nap in my room. Woke up and found out that I had just wasted my day and tried to get work done but failed. I, along with four other guys in my hall, spent an hour and a half working on one math problem which was absolutely ridiculous. So after finishing that assignment I rushed to dinner and then family home evening.

Dinner was a treat. I got to sit with some girls from my old fhe group and we talked about how dis-functional our old group was. Somehow we got on the topic of first impressions and what not. It was fun to be able to look back that far in the year and remember what it was like before we all really knew each other and now to see how things were having spent so much time together. I told Hayley that I was (and still am) scared of her haha, told Lauren how outgoing I thought she was, and of course Elise how much of a sweetheart she was and still is. Hayley made the comment that talking to me is like watching a comedy show--it basically made my day. Anyway, I was off to fhe because I was late again as usual.

I got to give the spiritual thought today which was great. I looked up one of my favorite devotionals from this past year from Elder Huntsman and his talk motivating us to do well in school because God didn't send us here to fail. I felt it appropriate with finals coming up and the group really seemed to like it. I love family home evening here so much, especially since I never had it at home. It's so great to have a "family" to spend time with and that you can get together with every week. I don't think they realize how much it means to me but my week surely wouldn't be the same without it.

We played catchphrase today and it was an absolute success. We had such a great time, its definitely one of the fhe's I'll never forget. McCall was hilarious. She gave the most farfetched hints ever and I could not help but die of laughter every time she had the catchphrase thing (technical term, stick with me). My favorite was this hint, "So you're in a foreign country and you're like... what?" Can you guess what the hint was for? Cultural shock. Right? She was a riot but I love her. Poor Lisa and Natalie though, it seemed like every time the buzzer went off, it landed on them. Anyway since the points got messed up we just played until my time won haha and then said a prayer and left.

Came back to my room and organized my calendar for this month and realized how close finals were, not to mention the end of this year. I don't want it to end just yet but some part of me does. After doing that I helped Michael with a few things for his papers and then got caught up talking to Jordan on facebook. Talked to Mike for a little and then lost absolutely all motivation to do any work whatsoever--hence, blogging.

Michael's asleep now though so I'm even more unmotivated to get any work done. So I think I'm just going to wash up, read my scriptures, and go to bed that way I can at least put a successful end to a successfully unsuccessful day.