Writing a blog once week reminds me a lot of weekly emails home on the mission. Can't believe I've been home for almost three months now.
The weeks seem to keep getting more hectic. Homecoming this week made things really exciting and somewhat stressful. Regardless, it really made me love being here at BYU and appreciate its history.
Started out the week with the homecoming opening ceremony which is one of my favorite assemblies every year. The theme for this year was Of Pillars and Cornerstones, a tribute to the past 100 years of BYU specifically centered around the Karl G. Maesar building (deemed to be the cornerstone of BYU's campus). Opening ceremonies was really fun and really different from my freshman year experience. It leaned away from the classical sense that they took on my freshman year (with performing groups such as the wind symphony, men's and women's chorus, etc.) and went more towards a broadway, musical theater feel--including groups such as Vocal Point, the Young Ambassadors, the Cougarettes, Synthesis, and BYU's Contemporary Dance Theater. This picture was probably my favorite--when BYU's national-champion-dance-team, the Cougarettes, took on The Sing-off participants, Vocal Point at "So you think you can sing, better than I can dance?" |
| Starting off the week with BYUSA's BBQ! |
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| Gave Austin a really hard time about the sunglasses haha. |
I also was taken back a little bit working at BYU's marching band competition, the Rocky Mountain Invitational. I got to host American Fork's marching band which is ranked to be one of the best marching bands in the nation. I'm not afraid to say that being a part of everything made me really miss high school marching band. Not necessarily for the band part, but the feel of being able to be a part of something and competing for it with your best friends. It was a bit nostalgic but at the same time extremely refreshing to see such talented high schoolers.
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| See if you can spot me in the white! |
Wednesday we welcomed a brand new member to our Blender Bunch--Riley Cooney. Riley is a great friend of Jessica's and we are really excited to have him on board. He's already made great contributions and efforts to the event and it's been a blast having a new face in the committee. After our first meeting, Riley and I went to BYUSA's True-Blue Football event which is just a huge party with blue foam haha. There were huge slip-n-slides, dancing, and games. Everyone walked away blue and found out later on that night that, even after showering, for some strange reason we all still had blue armpits! It was extremely fun and worth it. It was great seeing everyone with a hinge of blue the next day in my swim class.
And finally the week ended with the BYU Spectacular, the dances, and the game. BYU Spectacular this year was amazing. BYU Spectacular (for non-BYUers), is a show that BYU puts on every homecoming in relation to whatever the theme is that year--mainly for visiting BYU alumni. The turnout is so huge that they have to set-up a huge stage in the Marriott center to fit everyone. This year, keeping the idea of celebrating the past hundred years of BYU, the show was a musical theater type of documentary/walk-through of how BYU came to be how great it is today.
My date and I (after not getting to finish our food at dinner because of such slow service) had extremely good seats and were really lucky. I had the most adorable elderly lady sit next to me the whole time in tears as she remembered her days at BYU. While we were going through the 50's, 60's, and 70's, she would tell me short stories about how she remembered when the song they were performing came out and how she and her husband would dance to that song and--well just stuff like that. Collette and I really enjoyed it and I especially loved watching Jake, one of my former mission companions, perform in it in Vocal Point as well as my good friend Ben in Synthesis and Logan in Contemporary Dance.
On Friday, I took Collette and her friend to the casual dance on campus after Glee rehearsal which was, well, alright haha. I felt a bit out of place with my other friends since it just seemed like it was mostly freshmen. We made it fun though. And then finally the blue pancake breakfast, the parade, and the game we barely lost all ended the homecoming experience for this year.
So what?
I feel like this week, I've gotten slapped in the face more times than I ever have my whole life. In between the small spurts of fun that homecoming brought, this week has been extremely difficult. I've been struggling a lot getting back in the swing of school and had my share of drama with friends. Those thing are expected though. If it wasn't for rough times, life would be way too boring and easy. What's been difficult is this consistent pattern that has continued to bite me in the back this whole week: assuming and assuming poorly. Here are just three short examples:
On Thursday I felt really proud of myself because for the first time I felt like I was completely on top of school. Then, I walked into my MCOM class and realized that I had missed a step in the assignment we were supposed to complete that day. I had assumed I knew exactly how to complete the assignment without double-checking the directions. Loss.
On Friday I was really happy because I had gotten up early to make cookies for a friend in BYU Spectacular that was evidently extremely exhausted from rehearsals that week and an anatomy midterm. When I didn't know what to wrap it in, I thought they'd appreciate the thought and creativity behind cutting out a nature valley box, wrapping it in newspaper, placing the napkin-wrapped cookies inside, and then wrapping everything in newspaper, completed with a ribbon from an unused garbage bag. I would have appreciated something like that, but apparently, not everyone else does. Not even a thank you. An effort to make someone happy wasted. I assumed I would at the least get a thank you and that they would appreciate it. Loss.
On Saturday I took my grammar test that I felt extremely prepared for. I felt like I knew grammar really well and was really familiar with the textbook. I walked in, took the test, and felt like I got an A on it. However, the score on the screen didn't exactly match what I felt. I assumed that I knew the material well enough to get that grade. Loss.
Now what?Life is just so unpredictable and unfair. I heard someone at church say this morning that life is about the things that happen while you're planning it out--and it's true. Things most often never go the way you assume they were and will go. So my conclusion is two-fold:
1) Check and double-check
2) Still prepare for the worst
For school assignments. For work assignments. For church assignments. For life assignments. I've concluded these two things will, for the most part, save heartache. Never assume you know what something is. Never assume you know what someone is thinking. Never assume you know what is best. Ask for clarification and ask again. And then even when you feel like you understand, prepare for the worst news and hope for the best.
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