College Part 2

What’s new with me? Let’s try just about everything!! I’ve been having kind of a crummy week. But I’ll tell you about what’s new with me. I moved into the Townhouse a while ago, it’s the LDS girl housing I’ve been talking about for awhile and it’s rather old but I absolutely LOVE my roommates!! Like there’s not a single one who annoys me or that I don’t get along with or that I can’t talk to. We’re already bosom friends!! (Anne of Green Gables, anyone?)

I’m doing okay in most of my classes, except that I just picked up a new history class so, I’m 3 days behind in class and the teacher moves VERY fast. I’m supposed to have read to page 81 in the textbook that I don’t have yet. Yeah. I feel swamped!!

I’m on the Ballroom Dance Team here, and SOMEHOW I’ve become Co-President… I already have to plan dances, retreats, student lessons, and tours… all on top of taking 18 credit hours. So I’m already feeling a lot of pressure and stress. I’m really thankful that I have a Co-President who when I can’t do something can pick up the slack and vice versa.

I auditioned for Arsenic and Old Lace and made callbacks, which is kinda a big deal… there were 40-ish girls auditioning for 3 parts. In the end it basically came down to me and this other girl and she got the part. I’m kind of thankful for that (of course I’m still sorta disappointed) because now I have time to get homework done and settle into college a bit before I’m 2x as busy.

Also something sad is I found out that a good friend from last year died in a motorcycling accident right before school started… he was only 22… it seems so unreal for people my age to pass away. It just doesn’t seem fair or real. He was a great guy, I remember one time I was at his apartment and I made the comment that I’d have to go home soon because I was pretty hungry and I needed to eat. Well Wes was making himself some food at the time. When he finished cooking he gave the entire meal to me, then he ran off to his class without eating. He was so funny and could always get anyone to laugh!! It just feels so unreal that sometimes I have a hard time believing it, but if I think about it for awhile, I get pretty sad about the whole thing.

Anyways… sadly that’s about it of my college experience thus far, although I will say that I went to a dance once with my laptop to use the internet, because I’m THAT awesome!!

Abuse: Saying Sorry Isn't Enough

I usually don't talk about anything super serious on this blog, but I decided that now was the time to change that. I just finished reading the whole "A Child Called It" series of books and with the recent case of Ethan Stacy hitting so close to home (Literally in Layton) I decided that I have some thoughts on the issue that I would like to bring up.

I feel like the older I become the more I am aware of what a terrifying world we live in. Abuse is… well abuse is something that I feel really strongly about actually, I’ve done a lot of research papers and essays covering different aspects of abuse and I feel like every time I present my research it makes people uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that it seems that they’d like to just pretend that it doesn’t happen. I gave a presentation on sexual abuse in my college English class, my class was then supposed to ask me questions which would show how knowledgeable I’d become on my subject and fill out anonymous papers on my presentation. When I finished my presentation and it came time for questions no one—not one person—asked me a question. When I got my papers back almost half of the comments were “You should have picked a different topic” or something along that line.

Well you know what? I’m not going to pick a different topic! It astounds me that in on a college level people choose to do research topics on the negative effects of tanning beds or something equally trivial. I’m sorry that my research makes you feel uncomfortable, but you need to face the world for what it is sometimes and if you’re ignoring problems like this you are only making them worse. I’m sorry that this is coming off harsher than I intended, but it really upset me when I gave my presentation to my college class and they reacted negatively towards me for my topic.

It’s probably because of where I live that I get negative reactions over my topics, everyone wants to believe that we’re living in a utopia here, but the fact is when it comes down to statistics, Utah is VERY far from perfect. Maybe the reason abuse problems in Utah are so high is because nobody is willing to address them. Well I’m going to right now, and if this makes you feel uncomfortable, I’m sorry… but I think you should read it anyways.

ANIMAL ABUSE:

Animal abuse is a terrible occurrence, and studies now show that there has been a rise in abuse.In the year 2000, there were 380 cases of animal abuse and cruelty. In 2005; the amount of cases had risen to an unbelievable 1,070 cases reported. That’s an increase of 1,690 in only five years. (Heartland Cat Rescue & Adoption Society, Inc.)

Most people would agree that animals deserve some kinds of rights. When asked about animal rights Kristi Adams, a Humane Law Enforcement officer in New York City, said this:

“…Animals have the right to be free from all human cruelty and exploitation. When I say rights, I am not talking about giving an antelope the right to vote in elections. I simply feel that animals have an interest in living, avoiding pain, and even in finding happiness; and they should have those rights.”

Right now animal abuse and it’s cases fall under state jurisdiction. Because of this, depending on what state you live in the punishment for animal abuse varies greatly. In fact, in some states you will be more severely punished if you smoke in an elevator than if you maliciously torture and kill an animal. Does that seem really messed up to anyone else?

Maybe you’re not thinking animal abuse is such a big deal because you may be thinking to yourself “What’s the big deal, it’s not like they’re people.” Well if that’s what you’re thinking I think you’re a horrible person, but more importantly you are wrong.

Animal abuse is so much more than just that (as if that wasn’t horrible enough!). Animal abuse is a crime that has been linked to so every other possible form of abuse. In most cases of violent crime the perpetrator more or less “practiced” on animals.

71% of battered women report that their spouse threatened, hurt, or killed one of their animals as a form of abuse towards the women. (The Humane Society Of The United States) Many of the women say that they didn't want to leave their husbands because they were afraid of what would happen to their pets if they did. In addition to be used as a threat, animal abuse is also an indicator of child abuse. Many children who abuse animals do so because they themselves are abused in their homes. Finally, animal cruelty is strongly linked to violence later in life. Serial rapists and murderers often have animal abuse as one of their past offenses that escalated into abuse of people.

So if people will not do not think laws are needed protect the animals themselves, why shouldn’t they be enacted simply to stop a problem such as child abuse or a serial killer before it starts?

CHILD ABUSE:

I have never officially done any research on the topic of child abuse, so I’m less knowledgeable in this particular subject. A quick internet search brings up these statistics: More than 36,800 complaints of child abuse and neglect were made last year IN UTAH!!

Who could abuse a child? Like really, even the lowliest of low criminals look down on child abusers in prison!! If you’ve never read the book “A Child Called It” I recommend it, it’s not super well written or anything like that, but I think it’s a worthwhile read still. The book is a semi-autobiography about one of the worst child abuse cases in California. (There is some controversy surrounding the book, and I’m aware of that, so don’t bring it up.) In the book his mother heavily abuses him for years. And this isn’t just ‘I’ve lost my temper and I’ve got to hit someone’ abuse. This is cold and calculated torture.

Probably what made me most mad was that no one did anything about it. The neighbors all knew, his other brothers knew, his dad knew and did nothing!! The school knew for a long time before they finally got it taken care of. THEN if you read his brother’s book “A Brother’s Journey” you learn that she starts beating another child. Why would the judge let this woman keep her children?! Why wouldn’t the school, who knows for sure what is happening to this second child do nothing?!

Times were different back when these men were younger, child abuse was rarely brought into the public eye, it was all hushed away and skeletons in the closet. People say that there is so much evil in the world now and that our generation is messing everything up. Maybe the only difference between then and now is that our generation doesn’t keep secrets as well. 36,800 complaints last year, well that’s probably a fraction of the cases that are actually going on, but at least people are aware that it is happening. Maybe having the statistics go up for how many cases are reported wouldn’t be a bad thing, maybe there are just as many child abuse cases as there were in the past, the only difference is that my generation is actually trying to make a difference about it.

DOMESTIC ABUSE:

I haven’t really done a lot of research about domestic abuse either, I did but it was all focused on South Africa, so nothing really applies to here. So this will also be mostly opinions than facts.Every year, more than 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are physically assaulted and/or raped by their intimate partner in the United States.

I especially like that statistic because it mentions the problem with men as well. Obviously the problem is worse with women but the gap has been closing and as you can see there is a good amount of domestic abuse happening to men as well, which is something most people never really hear about.

Domestic abuse is especially bad because of the conflict of interest that happens. You love the person who’s abusing you, but you don’t love the abuse. Lots of people are really judgmental when it comes to the abused in a domestic abuse case because they think that it would be so easy for them to get out of it. Here’s the thing: if you’re married right now or you’ve been dating someone for awhile now who’s become really special think about what you would do if this person started hitting you. If I went on a date with a guy who was a stranger and he hit me I wouldn’t continue to date him, that’s easy. Now if I’d been married to someone for a couple years and they started hitting me, I honestly don’t know what I’d do.

I would like to bring up something that most people are completely unaware is happening and that is marital rape. Just because you're married to someone doesn't give you the right to them, consent is still needed. Without willing consent (not coercion) sex with your spouse still qualifies as rape. Marital rape has been a crime in all 50 states since 1993. Utah defines rape as:

(1)    A person commits rape when the actor has sexual intercourse with another person without the victim's consent.

(2) This section applies whether or not the actor is married to the victim.

(3) Rape is a felony of the first degree.

Utah State Code, 76-5-402

So according to Utah code, not only is marital rape illegal, but it is also prosecuted as normal

rape.

Utah ranked 16th nationally for the percentage of women killed by men in 2001. Each year, an estimated 40,000 Utah women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner and 194,000 women are subjected to emotional abuse(http://health.utah.gov/vipp/domesticViolence/overview.html)

SEXUAL ABUSE:

I think that rape has become too much of a taboo subject, because of no one really speaking about it often people assume that it is a rare occurrence. How wrong I was. 1 in 3 women will be raped at some point in their lives. 1/3 of girls have been victims of unwanted sex before they even graduate from high school! Up to 44% of women have had someone attempt to rape them, which in my book is basically the same thing. Whether or not the rape actually took place I think that they’re going to suffer just as much emotionally as if it had actually happened. Some women don’t even consider what happened to them as rape, but whether they did or not 30% considered suicide afterwards and 41% are frightened but still expecting it to happen again. They can’t trust anyone anymore. Because a lot of women don’t consider what happened to them as actually being raped I think that the statistics are probably higher than what studies show! (Poulson)

Most people if they were to think about sexual assault or rape would imagine a dark alleyway and a stranger waiting in the shadows, while this type of assault still happens, it is not the most common. Statistics show that over 80% of the time the victim knows their attacker, in Utah, the statistics are even higher with over 92% of the victims knowing their attacker.

With so many of the victims knowing their attackers, you’d think that it would be easy to catch rapists on account of knowing exactly who he is and where he lives. But usually the opposite is true, because the victim knows their attacker; they have a harder time turning him in.Sometimes the attacker is someone that the victim admired or trusted and they feel that because their attacker seemed to be a good person, that it must have been their fault and that somehow they brought it on themselves.

This type of thinking is what makes it so that only 16% of rapes are actually reported to the police nationally, and only 10% of rapes are reported in Utah. These statistics are really shocking considering that in Utah, victims are more likely to know their attackers but less likely to report them.

Because of this, many of these rapists are getting away with what they have done. Only 6% of rapists will ever serve any jail time. This means that 94% of rapists are still walking around outside of jail; this is an especially scary statistic because rape is a serial crime. Rape isn’t something that someone does once; the average rapist will commit rape 8 times before they are ever apprehended!!

Well there you go. That is my 2 cents of the subject of abuse. Maybe you're someone who doesn't relate well to statistics (I sometimes find myself in more of that category) in which case here are somethings to watch that I think are amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNYA4pAGjI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gspElv1yvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v59JLfMJjOI

^That dance is about domestic abuse^

Anyways, I'm not meaning to play on your emotions, but these are videos that really mean something to me. And this is the end of my serious post.

Something to make you smile...

This is what my dog does anytime she's super excited about something and/or wet.
It's cute, isn't it?

Summer Blues

If I had to pick one word to sum up my summer (Haha, 'sum up my summer' is a fun phrase!!) it would be "BORING!!" I've been so gosh darn bored!! And I know people are always like "It's only boring if you make it..." in which case I obviously hate myself because I feel so bored about everything!!

Basically all of my friends are either on missions (how dare they!), at school, or so busy working I never see them. There is also the small group of friends, which I feel no longer wish for my friendship as whenever I call them they're always 'busy' and tend to forget to invite me to things! Those savages!! Oh well, people grow apart I suppose...

It's okay though, because I'm so busy with work and making money that I don't really notice. LIES!! My work HARDLY schedules me!! They decided that they were going to hire 15 new people this summer to make my life miserable and contribute to poor college students!! I've made only $800 since April!!! I'm so poor!!

My summer hasn't been all terrible... I do fun things every now and then with people. I'd say at least twice a week I do something worthwhile. But the time in between those things is so excruciatingly dull. I usually find myself home alone everyday with no friends able to hang out with.

Because this summer has been such a bummer I can't wait for school to start again. Maybe this sucky summer was a ploy to make me better appreciate school and learning. In any case I'm counting down the days till I'm too busy with school and friends to even remember what the meaning of 'boring' is!!

I have such a busy schedule set up! And since I'm rather bored and have nothing better to do, I shall share it with you! (Sorry, you'll live!)

On Monday and Wednesdays I have my Theater History class. It's a 3 credit class and it's taught by Dr. K who rocks my socks. Then I have Theater Improv (3 credits) with Professor Olsen, which I've heard is a really fun class and I'm rather not the best at Improv so it's a good choice for me. Then I have Institute D&C with Sperry, I don't really know what to expect about this but it's been awhile since D&C. Then I have my Ballroom dance company class (2), I made the Ballroom dance team and ironically I don't really know how to Ballroom dance, so I'm going to feel really dumb with all the people who know what they're doing, but this is going to be a lot of fun for me! Finishing it off with History (3) I hate history.

On Tuesday and Thursdays I have Biology (3) which I've heard is one of--if not THE hardest class on campus, I picked out a teacher who seemed to be better than the rest, but I won't know until class starts. I also have Biology Lab (1) on Thursdays only for like 2 hours and I think I'm going to die in that class. After that I have American Folklore (3) not to be confused with 'Forklore' which is what I referred to it as once. I really have no idea what to expect from that one.

Friday all I have is Friday Forum... we'll see if I actually decide to go or not, It'll depend on the week I'm sure. I'm pretty happy about having a rather clean Friday because that means I can leave at 3 pm on Thursday for home or whatever... it just sucks because I don't have a car and so finding someone who'd be able to take me home then will be hard.

You may have noticed my theater classes, this is due to my Theater scholarship. I have to take 2 theater classes a semester. Not only that but I HAVE to audition for all the plays. I'm kind of glad that I have something forcing me to audition now, because I ended up chickening out on all the plays last year, I only auditioned for the last one which I didn't make and then for the one act plays, which I did make. So now I've got something forcing me, so I can't chicken out!! Well the thing is, if I make any of the plays they are going to take up SO much of my time. Also if I don't make the plays I can be chosen to work as a tecky, so I'll have a lot of time taken up there too. All in all I don't think I'll be bored come school and I can't wait for it to start.

Well this has been rather all over the place and kind of pity-party-ish at the beginning, but mostly sarcastically bored. And besides, I can throw a pity-party if I want to... probably the only party I'll be invited to this summer anyways... ;)

Goodbyes

Goodbyes. I hate them. In a scale of 1 to 10 on how much I hate them, I hate them. This years were especially hard. I go Snow College, which is a Jr. College aka only 2 years of school. MEANING that I'm never going to see a lot of my friends from there, like ever. People are graduating and going on missions, and by the time they come back (if they ever do) I'm gone already to my own college. It's the worst. But what I think are even worse than goodbyes, is not having the opportunity to say goodbye--and even worse than that, not having the courage to say goodbye.

Goodbyes can be kind of an awkward thing if you think about it. What if you say goodbye to someone who didn't really care enough about you to want to say goodbye? What if you say a goodbye forever and then run into the person a couple more times before you leave, then you're both kinda like "uhhhh" because you don't want to do the whole goodbye thing again, but then you didn't really end up saying goodbye because you kept seeing each other. These are the reasons why I usually end up not saying goodbye to someone and then regretting it later.

Probably the weirdest things about goodbyes is that they don't seem like goodbyes at the time; like it doesn't ever really sink in that you're not going to see each other for a long time (maybe ever). I think if I had truly realized that at the time of me leaving I would have said more goodbyes and they would have been more heartfelt. I would have let everyone who was important to me know exactly how much I appreciated them. I would have told the people who took the time to talk to me and show friendship that I appreciated the way that they treated me. No one would walk away with me showing my gratitude for who they are and what they did for me.

In any case, I didn't. I am now regretting that. The thing about goodbyes is that they happen all the time--and who knows; maybe I'll learn how to give the perfect goodbye, hopefully before it's too late.

Recap

So school is over!! Goodness, it seems like time moves a lot faster when you're in college... so I think I'll do a quick catch up on what's happened since last time.

In March I went to The Festival of Colors, it's in Spanish Fork... or maybe American Fork... in any case, it was a fork. There's an Indian temple there (like not Native Americans, legit Indians), and they have this festival to celebrate spring every year. So I went with Megan (my lovely older sister), Bryant (Megan's fiancé!), and Jake (my boyfriend). It was a lot of fun. The best way for me to describe this is as a glorified chalk fight. You buy little packets of 'chalk'--turns out it's really just cornstarch that's a different color and you throw it at people at a certain time to celebrate spring.

*Before and after pictures from the Festival of Colors. L to R: Jake (bf), ME!, Bryant (Megan's fiance), Megan (my sister!).*

I really liked it because first off the temple thing, I had no clue there was something like that in Utah. It's really beautiful and I think it would be fun to go look at it sometime for fun. They had a fountain and peacocks and it was just a cool place. The chalk stuff smelled like incense, it was a good smell and when everyone threw the chalk at once, there were so many people and so much chalk that it actually blotted out the sun for awhile and you could only see like 4 feet around you. It was crazy!! We got pretty chalky and it was loads of fun, I think I'll definitely go again next year!

The next cool thing that happened was I went to a masquerade. So this summer I bought this freaking awesome mask from the Shakespearean Festival and I've NEVER had an opportunity to wear it without raising eyebrows. So finally I got my chance to shine.

*I got so many compliments and it was definitely one of the coolest--if not THE coolest, mask there!! *

<---- ake="" and="" attractive="" dance="" em="" going="" me="" re="" the="" to="" we="">

*Jake got a mask painted on later at the dance and this is what he ended up looking after he tried (unsuccessfully) to wash it off. * ------>

The dance wasn't that cool outside of the stuff they had there. I really didn't like the DJ much so we ended up spending the majority of the dance standing in a line for a carriage ride, I'd never been on a carriage ride before and it was something that was on my goal list. (I have a goal list btw) So I really wanted a ride, so we waited around forever. We were way lucky, we were the last group that they let ride :) I was really happy!! And it was everything I was hoping it was, except there wasn't romantic music playing, and there weren't pretty lights.

So that’s basically the only cool things out of school that happened, in school I was granted a theatre scholarship for next year, which is super awesome! I love theatre and it makes me quite happy, also I was getting sick and tired of band and I felt super bad because I wasn’t putting in as much time into practicing as I should have and I really didn’t like playing anymore so my heart just wasn’t in it. But the idea of getting paid to audition for the school plays and take theatre classes just makes me super happy!!

Also in relation to that I auditioned for, and made a one act play at Snow. It was called “While Shakespeare Slept” and it was basically awesome. Essentially Shakespeare’s decided to quit theatre and all of his characters come to him in a dream and talk him into writing plays. It’s a comedy and it’s especially funny if you know Shakespeare because there’s a lot of Shakespeare-inside jokes. I got to play the part of Rosalind, which I really liked because she’s one of my favorite Shakespearean girls AND I got to dress up like a Newsie essentially, which is always favorite. That finished like last week and was super fun, I really liked working with the people I did and performing for an actual audience again. It was a nice warm up for hopefully next year’s season. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The next super awesome thing that happened to me was I auditioned for Snow College’s Ballroom Dance team… AND I MADE IT!!! I’m way excited for this. I was a classical ballerina for about 10 years and I always thought it would be way fun to learn how to Ballroom dance. Well this semester I took Latin Social I and I picked up on everything like super fast, so I decided to audition. I’m way excited, I’ve missed dancing a lot and this will be a really fun opportunity for me to dance, meet new people, try choreographing (all the dances are choreographed by the members), and travel!!

Between theatre and ballroom dancing, I can’t wait for next year to start!!

Well that’s basically all the cool things that have happened. So far I’m feeling really good about my grades. If everything goes according to plan I’ll be keeping my academic scholarship for next year, and if everything goes AMAZING, I could get the first 4.0 of my life!! Right now I’ve done most of my finals, and turned in all my papers, so all that’s left is for me to give a group speech tonight and pack up and clean and move away. It’s kind of crazy to think that this is my last week, because I feel like it should feel more monumental, but it really just feels like a normal week except I’m out of good food and don’t want to go restock.

Well… I’m thinking that’s about it for now, I’m going to have a lot more time to write on this thing now that school’s over, so expect to see more posts in the future.

P.S. Is anyone else super mad about the weather?! (For those of you not living near me it snowed hard core last night.) Jake put it perfectly when he said “It’s almost May, weather, grow up!”

Spring Fever!!

Is it just me or is everyone and their dog getting married?! It's insane!! I know a large number of people who are engaged or in great danger of becoming so very soon. It's almost like the latest fad of the season; it's a phenomenon that's sweeping my college!! People are saying that the marriage rates at Snow are nearing the percentage at BYU, a frightening thought! Just kidding, that's basically impossible. ;)

This engagement craze keeps bringing one image to my brain time and time again: Bambi. You know in Bambi when all the friends are walking along together and suddenly one by one they become twitterpatted and pair off with their girl counterparts? Well I feel as though it is definitely twitterpation season!! And I find myself in Bambi's shoes (7&1/2 in woman's) where he watches all his friends hook up and just shakes his head and continues onward, to later fall into the same trap by mistake. (I'm still safe, no one read into that weird!)



I've thought about this plague and I keep thinking to myself what can possibly be the cause of it? Do we still have some animal instinct in us to breed in the spring to better ensure our offspring's survival? If so, then in modern times do we find the other species more attractive come the approach of spring? Is it because the way the school year falls? One semester has already past where one can date and find their one and only, so spring marks the end of school and less stress which is a more logical time to marry. Maybe it's a chain reaction where one person gets engaged and everyone else takes note and starts to play with the idea within their own life causing a chain of engagements? Maybe it's a combination of many things?



In any case it's happening and I'm pretty shocked. I've thought about why I'm so concerned about this whole thing and I think that maybe it's not happening more this year than any other, maybe the only change is that this year I'm old enough to get married myself, so I'm more exposed to the situation. Hmmm... probably. That's a scary thought, but I'm safe...for now!


P.S. Congratulations on everyone who's engaged!! Megan, Bryant, Jordan, Jenika, Weipan, Erin, Miss. Stevens, Victoria, kid from band whose name escapes me, and Andrew!! Also congratulations for those people who are about to be engaged or told me of any plans... I won't say you're names but good luck, I hope it works out!!

My College Life Thus Far

Alright! So I'm not that great at blogging, go figure. Well I've been at Snow College for quite some time now and it's basically been my life for the past 7 months so I think it deserves some mention. So I came to Snow all by myself eager to make some new friends and be independent. I moved in and found that I didn't really click especially with my roommates with exception of my actual in-room-roommate who I absolutely loved. Sadly as with all things in my life she moved at the end of last semester and I torn between liking having my own room, missing my roomie, and the fact that without her here my room becomes a mess very quickly and stays that way despite my struggles. The rest of my roommates are very nice, friendly girls and really pretty and stuff, we're just not really best buds so I mostly hang out else where's or in my room. They're fun to talk to though!

The school part of school is going really well! I got a 3.68 last semester which is my highest GPA ever!! I was super excited!! I made it on the Dean's List last semester and I'm hoping to do even better this semester. I was really worried about college and I didn't think I was going to be able to keep my academic scholarship (You have to have a combined GPA of 3.75) but it looks like if I really buckle down this semester, that anything is possible!!

I'm taking some pretty fun classes here, I'm in 4 different band classes and I have a love-hate relationship with them all. I love band and absolutely love the people in it, but I hate how much time it consumes and how I feel so not cool when it's all over (I made it in the Advanced Band... BARELY, I'm literally last chair) because I struggle a lot more than others. I'm in Acting classes and I'm loving it SO much!! Acting is really a huge love of mine and since I've come here I've grown a lot as an actress, I'm going to audition for the plays next year, cross your fingers for me! A class I took last semester that I really loved was Courtship & Marriage, and it sounds like it's a really pathetic class for girls who are trying to get married as fast as possible but it's not!! It was my favorite class ever and it applies to my life more than any other class ever has. If anyone goes to Snow I highly recommend you take this class from Poulson because it will change your life. I communicate better, understand people better, have a more realistic outlook, and just feel like it really has helped prepare me for life more than anything else ever has. I'm currently in a Developmental Psychology class which is really interesting. I really like this class, even though it's not an easy class because everything is so interesting and applicable. It's about the psychology of how people and children develop and it's really fun to learn about and I think it'll help me be a better mother when that time comes.

Something cool is I got handpicked to live in special housing next year. The easiest way to try to describe it is as a LDS sorority. Professor's recommend girls to live there who get good grades, live LDS standards, and are friendly girls. I got recommended and after talking to the man who owns the house I'm now going to live there next year!! It's really cheap and pretty nice, like it's an old house so it's not perfect, but I'm excited for awesome roommates because this year didn't quite work out as I would have liked. 7 girls live there and it's just said to be one of the best places you can live environment and roommate-wise which is great!! I'm also excited to make friends with some really good girls because usually I lack on the ammount of friends who are female, so I'm hoping this housing will help.

Awhile ago there was problems on campus with what I like to call "The Campus Creeper" who was a guy who was coming into girl's apartments and watching them sleep. There were also a number of attacks on girls on campus last semester. It's kind of funny because I assumed that hickville Ephraim, UT would be safe from all that, but it shows you're never really safe. Well in light of all this I have learned self-defense! Like serious rip-off-ear-bruised-crotches-pencil-stabbing self defense!! I feel a lot safer knowing this and I have the opportunity to teach other girls what I know which makes me feel better to know I'm helping others feel safer too. Part of me really wants to be attacked so I can use my awesome skills and seriously handicap the guy... but not a huge part of me wants that so I think for now I'll keep having people walk home with me at night and make sure I lock my doors.

Well I can't think of anything else really school related to talk about now except that I'm not super excited to start appling to other schools. The problem of picking a Jr. College (2 years) to go to is that I have to make the huge decision of what college to go to AGAIN come next year. I'm so bad at making decisions too... silly me!! Oh well. I'm sure I'll figure it out all over again. Well I promise to try harder to update this more and let you guys know what's going on with me.

Blog Fail

I am a blogging failure!!!! Haha, I'll try again sometime really soon, promise!