They made me ready.

Forewarning: this is going to be the longest blog I’ve ever written; this is more for me to remember than for you to read.

I can’t believe that Spring semester is already over. I’m not sure if I could take eight more weeks of it, but it definitely ended too soon. Not going to get too much into that right now; I’ll get to that. First, a really late, and really long recap.

Last Wednesday, (yeah we’re going way back folks) I woke up to a pleasant message on my whiteboard from Adds telling me he wouldn’t be at weight training that day which was perfect because I wasn’t going to be there either since I had so much to do. I was so fed up with dressing up for school that I just threw on a shirt, jeans, and my running shoes - never saw that one coming. I crutched my way over to class and did work pretty much the rest of the day.

My psychology group had to do this experiment so we all met in the library at three. It was actually a lot more fun than I could’ve imagined. We all were supposed to bring a person because we needed eight people total... of course no one came through except Addison as my person, so we had to track down four other people to conduct the experiment. We were learning about neurons and all that schnuff and tested reaction time by sitting in a circle and squeezing the persons arm/leg next to the other person and seeing how fast that got around. Anyway after that was over Adds and I “studied” (as you can see) in the library until seven and then headed back to the dorms. Chan and I had a heart to heart and then decided to go get some  shaved ice at Hokulia; they have the best shaved ice ever. Chan and I finished the infamous “big kahuna” which is pretty freaking gigantic. We headed back, I finished the glee finale, and went to bed. It was also Shelly’s birthday so right before I gave her the awesome card that me and Adds made for her.

Basketball was pretty much pointless with my bum leg now. Finally I had my doctors appointment at the health center on Thursday. After basically raping Addison’s door, I got him up and we made it over to the health center for my appointment. I got there and checked in... and got blood boiling news. Apparently my appointment was an hour earlier at 8:40am. That was without a doubt incorrect. I specifically remembered the lady saying 9:40am and also putting it straight into my calendar clarifying it several times before I got off the phone with her the previous Monday. Anyway, there was nothing either of us could do because the doctor had left already; typical of my luck. I felt really bad for getting Adds up that early but he was able to roll back into bed just fine; besides, now I for sure wasn’t going to be late for my appointment with Sister Burgon to talk about my last test. So I made it up the hill with my three legs and decided that I wanted to get her a thank you card for all the hard work she put into grading our question assignments and then headed to the JSB to get the low down on my grade. She’s such a great teacher that genuinely cares about all her students. I felt like if she could, she would give me A+’s on everything, but there’s nothing logical about that so let’s be real. Afterwards I went downstairs to knock out an assignment I had due for psychology and then took at nap on the seats before class. Then class, weight training, and then Addison and I went to Legend’s for the last time. We had some pretty good memories at Legend’s this past semester; whether it was breakfast for those couple weeks, or all the other weeks we went right after weight training. It was cool trying to get into ESPN haha even though the only sports they show are the ones that I don’t play and don’t really have any interest in. We always made it in time for the show “The Horn” which I actually grew to like; regardless of the fact that I had absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about. Anyway, we left Legends to find it was raining outside--no bueno for crutches. Addison ran into the RB to check something for his dad as I got a head start back to the dorms. I nearly ate it in the middle of the cross walk, slipping around in my crutches, but I made it out okay. Eventually Addison caught up and we made it back to the dorms. I was extra late to Psychology that day for our last day of class so Adds drove me pretty much right up to the door and I endured one last occurrence of that terribly taught class (I wish you could see the course eval I wrote for the class haha). After class, I was starving so I went out to dinner with one of the missionaries I had when I got baptized to Tucano’s. Love that place, and it was nice to catch up with Nick. Got back just in time to catch the last few minutes of the game and then went with Hannah to go play broomball... only to realize that broomball was cancelled for the night haha. Oh well, it seems like each epic fail I have always makes way for an opportunity, so I used this one to get my laundry done haha. Bowman and Addison came over and chilled with me and Chan for a bit and then everyone parted and got their work done for the night.

Friday was weird for weather. It started out pretty nice, but ended dark and dreary. I snoozed though (but was physically there) PDBIO and then Lyndsey, Chan, and I made it to lunch at the Skyroom to burn of some money from Lyndsey’s card. As always, the combination of the two was quite the entertainment factor. We ran into Seth and Fitzy there, not to mention a couple others, and trying to talk to nearly everyone made me barely late for my doctor’s appointment that day. Of course I got there only to find the doctor himself was running late, so I called Addison and told him not to wait up because I had no idea how long I’d be. So finally he showed up nearly an hour later and I got in. He told me I had torn my adductor magnus muscle in my leg and I learned that that was actually a good thing rather than a ligament. I also learned that this doctor would be my branch president in the MTC for my mission! Weird right? What a coincidence. He put me in a knee immobilizer so that I could maneuver around without crutches (thank heavens) and let my leg heal faster. Chan (after getting lost for half and hour) picked me up and I laid down for a nice long nap. I woke up to Preston prying me out of bed to grab dinner at the canc. It was really nice to catch up with an old friend who hasn’t changed a bit. I really miss that kid and am glad we can still sit down and have a good dinner together. We both got hit on by a couple 16 year-old EFY girls which made the night absolutely priceless.
Later that night, Lynds and I went for a bowling rematch and had a pleasant surprise to see the Hutchisons there playing as well; they were picking up Weston and then on their way to visit Kels. Anyway, Lyndsey won one, and I won one even though I totally should’ve won both because I would’ve creamed her if it weren’t for my bum leg haha. So our score is now two and two which needs to be settled before I leave on the mish.
Afterwards, we headed to this little group date at the Green Room and met up with Blake & Alex, Bowman & Kristen, and Addison & Haley (some of those names have the potential of being incorrectly spelled, my apologies). It was a pretty sick place, even though half the things were broken/stolen. We got some pretty good games going, not to mention probably the most retarded game of pictionary I’ve ever played (couch on wheels brown for clues?). Then after all the excitement, we watched Hitch and headed back for a really late night. Got back and chatted with Chan and Addison until nearly four in the morning; looks like getting up early the next day was definitely not going to happen.

I figured that my body’s internal clock would wake me up pretty early the next day so I could get some stuff done but that for sure did not happen. Planned on getting up around eight to take a test but got up at 10:30am, of course. We originally planned on leave to Salt Lake at 11:00am so I got out of bed because neither Chan or Adds were awake yet so I had to play mom and wake everyone. I called Addison a billion times but he didn’t get up so I waddled to his room and woke him up. I nearly cussed the crap out of him when he wouldn’t get out of bed and decided he could just call me on my phone instead haha. Anyway we all got up, had lunch at the canc, and  made our way to Salt Lake for the day. Chan had to do some community service at the food bank and Addison needed to do some work in the family history center; I told Chandler the week before that I’d help him and do whatever service work he decided to do with him. Unfortunately, we made it way too late and ended up spending the day at temple square instead. That probably could have been one of the best decisions I made all year. We spent the day talking to sister missionaries left and right and hitting up all the tourists spots at temple square. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had and I’m really glad that we had the chance to go. A few hours later we met up with Addison, went to Chipotle for dinner, and then went home. Adds wasn’t feeling well so he hit the hay for the night and I stayed up, made chocolate and coconut covered strawberries with Lyndsey for my Sunday school class, cleaned our room, and got my lesson prepared for the next day.

I woke up to a nice note from the Chandler the next morning which really set the tone for the rest of the day. Church was great and my lesson went really well. It was basically on love; here’s one of the videos I showed - probably the best message that could ever be given.

I’m going to miss teaching that class a lot; the strawberries were a hit too. After church, I was locked out of the room so I went and filled in Addison with all the details of the meetings for the day since he was sick and couldn’t make it to church. We talked for a bit and then I went down to the canc for lunch and laid down for my Sunday nap.
Later on that night, Adds and I made our way over to condo-row for Megan’s birthday and endured a strange dinner full of RM’s and apartment roomies. Needless to say, we were a bit out of place and it was even more strange that another one of the guys there was named Eric as well. Funny that it annoyed Addison just as much as it annoyed me. Not even fifteen minutes into the night and we both agreed that I needed to change my name. Anyway, food was great; Becca did a great job with the BBQ Chicken pizza  and no-bake cake. Not to mention Addison and I made a killer card for Megan haha. It’s definitely our little forte. Afterwards we played a couple rounds of catchphrase and then headed out a lot later than planned. Apparently Adds was giving me signs to leave but I missed every single one of them haha, the night wasn’t over just yet though. Lynds came over and we watched the rest of the game in Addison’s room. Then I killed a couple hours talking to Marshall and Burbidge about random high school stuff. By the time that was all done it was nearly 11:00pm and when Chan and I realized that, we nearly started to slit our wrists. We still had so much work to do. It only took a matter of minutes for us to become completely hysterical haha. I crawled under my desk and Chandler hid under his blanket. I told Chan to text Addison and tell him that he needed to take us to the hospital, but I didn’t know he would take that literally haha. He busted through the door and was just like.... “Uh... are you guys alright?” haha.
We explained our frustrations and the three of us decided to pull a super all-nighter. Chan grabbed some energy drinks and the party began. Did we get much work done? Nah. We stayed up talking on the phone, watching youtube videos, had a shower party at 4:00am and somewhere in between all that, got work done haha. Chandler was going absolutely insane about halfway through the night which was pretty hilarious. At about 6:00am, we all hit the hay and struggled through the next day.

I got up and mozied over to my last day of basketball and then made it back to the room and made sure everyone was up. We all frantically got our stuff together and made it to our respective 10:00am classes and journeyed through the rest of the day. After weight training, me and Adds “studied” (comprised of facebook and naptime) for an hour and then headed over to the testing center. Afterwards, both Addison and Chandler went to bed (yeah, at like 7:00pm) but I was still wide awake, so I went out to dinner with Tori to Pizza Pie Cafe. It’s like a ghetto version of CiCi’s Pizza but still very good. We had a great dinner though. It’s funny how sometimes some of the best things that happen to you happen in the most untimely matter. I guess that’s just the humor of life and a truth that all (or should I say most?) good (and bad) things must come to end. We got back around 11:00pm and it was my turn to crash.

Tuesday was a reading day. I got up to see if Addison wanted to grab breakfast but he had a review at 9:00am... and I had forgotten that I had one at 9:00am too (Am I retarded? Don't answer that question). Naturally, it took me forever to get ready so I got there around 10:15am despite the fact that the review was schedule to end at 10:30am. Good thing there were two more that day. I killed an hour doing the New Testament final and ran into Dallin, one of the guys with the Neuroscience program who has been hassling me to switch my major the whole year. He’s a good guy though and although I haven’t changed, I’ll still consider it in the future. Chan, Lynds, and I went back to the skyroom for round two of attempting to kill Lyndsey’s card. We had a pleasant surprise of seeing Haley and Addison there as well. Of course we stayed way too long and I missed my second review at 1:00pm so I just went into the library and “studied” (comprised of taking a nap) until my next review at 3:00pm. Luckily, I made it to that review on time and then went back to the dorms to join Lynds and Chan for a nap outside on Helaman fields. After resting for a bit, we managed to miss all the camp kids for dinner and the parted for a bit before ward prayer.
Shelly (using my computer) put together and awesome slideshow for ward prayer which was coupled with an awesome Martinelli’s fight. The only thing we were missing was the prayer haha.

Anyway we stayed out talking for a bit and then I bonded with Shelly and headed back to my room since apparently the library wasn’t open late for finals. I got back expecting to find Chan in the room... but didn’t. So Adds came down and we contemplated what he could’ve been doing. I mean, I knew that he went out for a walk with Lyndsey a few hours ago but that was it.

“You don’t think...”
“No way dude, I’m a visual person and when you said that, no image came into my head.”

Well Chandler made it back from his “walk” (comprised of Wendy’s and a literal “walk” I guess haha) and went to bed while me and Adds stayed up watching youtube videos of Dane Cook and he informed me about his unproductive day. I of course, had no room to talk either.

My last day in Helaman was just a bunch of finals on top of finals. My first was at 7:00am (gag me) which was so hard to get up for since Addison and I were up until 3:00am the night before. Well I barely made it, and got that out of the way. I had breakfast with Cameron and then went to procrastinate studying for PDBIO in my room for awhile by leaving everyone crazy-stupid videos on people's walls. I eventually made it to the library to study for one last time, had lunch with Lynds at the skyroom, and then ventured over to go take my last test. Unfortunately, that one didn’t go too hot. I might as well have not studied for it whatsoever because it wasn’t a content test, it was all experimental analysis. It’s whatever though, it’s all over now. I tried to get a hold of Addison but he was equally ticked off about all his exams and just wanted to be alone.
So I went back on campus to sell back my books and made it back in time to have one last canc dinner with Spencer and Natalie. Kinda sad, but relieved at the same time. I’ll miss that place for sure. Afterwards, Spencer taught me how crack a whip which was tricky to begin with, but so addictive when I finally got the hang of it.

Of course I stayed there for too long and ended up being late for one last appointment with the Bishop and then made it back in time for Shelly’s mission call opening. I’ll let the video jerk some tears for you. I'm so excited for her, she's going to be so awesome out there.

I planned on having a great night for my last night in college, but I was so pooped that I just didn’t care. We went to IHOP for one last time and decided to wait all night to see the sunrise at Squaw Peak, but I ended up just crashing while Lynds and Chan stayed out for the night. I woke up at 6:00am, met back up with them for a round of Crispy Cream, and then we came back to Helaman so they could sleep. Well, my parents were on their way, so I went to go figure when Addison would be back from the airport with Hayley so we could figure lunch, and then I went out to breakfast with Alyssa at Magleby’s.
It was great to catch up with her as she told me all about her semester at BYU Hawaii. On our way out we got a couple old ladies to take our picture and they thought we were just the cutest couple haha. Oh, gotta love old people. I made it back and procrastinated packing.
Went for a walk and said goodbye to Tori. We made it all the way around Helaman as I blabbed and blabbed about all the memories I had there. And then, well, we said our long goodbye. That’s when it really started to sink in to me; for a lot of my friends, today was goodbye, goodbye for a really, really long time. It’s weird to think my last day of this year had finally come for me to leave Helaman... forever. Ok, let’s not be too dramatic now haha, but still, it was a big deal. Finally my parents made it around noon and started to tear up my room.
About halfway through the afternoon, my parents took me, Chan, and Addison out for lunch at Olive Garden, and then we resumed packing. When we got back I ran (yeah, with my knee immobilizer) to go say bye to Burbidge and than made it back to my room. It really didn’t take long and it was really depressing to do. Somewhere amidst the chaos I managed to say bye to Shelly and Michael. Finally it was time for check out and the rest of my goodbyes. I took a shower and headed over to Hinckley to say bye to Remington and Victoria and made it back to Budge to say bye to the guys. I went down the hall basically and knocked on every door to say bye.
Finally, Addison came down and we said our goodbyes. That one was probably the hardest, but the easiest at the same time. The hard part wasn't saying goodbye to the friendship, but just having that company around. We spent so much time together this semester (that being my fault) and it was going to be really hard not having a pal to be around all the time now. Aside of Mat a few years back, I never really had a best friend growing up or in college for that matter. I always wanted to have a partner in crime or someone  that was expected to be spotted with me. I don't want to get all emotional and lovey-dovey on a blog but having Addison around fit that for me and it was definitely hard to leave that behind. But at the same time, I know that we'll stay tight and that I'm going to see him next week in California anyway so it really wasn't that bad. I’ve just never been good at goodbyes; I always get teary-eyed and emotional. this semester was really hard because I got close to so many people so fast and then it was just over. Anyway, we made it outside, took a couple pictures, and that... was it.

Now, I’m sitting in Hawaii (I’ll blog about this vacation some other time lol) nearly a week later. It seems so surreal. My first year of college is over. I still can’t even believe that it all happened. Looking back at pictures and seeing what great times I had and all the friends I made, all I really can do is smile. I could cry; I could cry a lot. The best year I had ever lived was over. But crying doesn’t do anything and won’t bring back those memories. If anything it just makes my nose stuffy and gives me a headache.

This year has taught me so many great things. Although I’ve had some rough times and made some bad decisions, the good things always seem to out weigh those issues. It’s been hard letting go, but that just means that the experience was worth my time.

Life is ever changing. Experiences can’t be repeated but memories can be replayed. What’s most important to realize, that I’ve found out from the past week, is that dwelling on the past, doesn’t bring the past back. It happened. It’s never coming back. And as much as you want to cling to the moments that matter most, you’re better off focusing to make greater moments happen in the future. Although sometimes goodbyes are hard, they are never permanent. I know we’ll all be back at BYU sometime soon and we will rock that school just as hard as we did this year. It will be different, but different is good. It adds essence to life. Sometimes you can’t help the tears, especially when you’re leaving your best friends behind, but don’t drown yourself in them. After all, this isn’t the end. This is not where our stories end.

I’ve made the best friendships over the past eight weeks and I know that I’ll come back to them when I get back. As for now, it’s time to live it up. Hawaii has been great so far, and I’ll be with some great friends next week in California. And of course, I have the handful of kids back home that I’m dying to see. So although it’s been the end to one great chapter, more new great experiences, I know, are on their way. And  by great, I’m not just talking about good ones, but bad ones too. That’s okay though.
I’m ready. I’m ready because all the great people I’ve met this past year, from church leaders to great friends like Addison, made me ready.

As for now, I’m just going to smile