#20: My Travels

     I am obsessed with traveling. I don't know what it is, but there is something new, fresh, and exhilarating about visiting a place you've never seen before. Throughout my senior year, I saved up every penny I could so that I could visit my grandparents on their mission in Oxford, England. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had! I absolutely love learning about other cultures, and being able to actually see another culture is so much more rewarding than hearing about it.

Apartments in London, England

We were able to walk around the city for a few days and even the architecture has a huge effect on the overall feel of a city. One of my favorite things to do was walk around the little shops that were spread throughout the small villages.

Exploring the Shops

England has such a longer history than America does, so seeing the different sights, and even feeling a sense of excitement and pride that the citizens there had for their country and its history was amazing. One of the ways we were able to experience this was through visiting many of the old chapels and castles around London and Oxford. Even exploring the colleges was an adventure.

Trinity College

     Visiting England was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I'm really glad that I was able to see another culture, even if it was only for a little while, but I am excited to see where I will be able to visit next.

#19: Christmas Around the World

     I just got back from BYU's Christmas Around the World dance production. It was a really fun event! There were so many countries represented through dance and music in the production. I've always loved learning about other cultures. I think that it is so cool how different cultures within countries represent their values and beliefs through dance, music, religion, and rituals.
     Culture is such an important part of a country. It is how the people unite to express their shared values and beliefs. I've always loved dance as a part of it. It was very interesting to see the symbolism involved in each type of dance. It's amazing how different countries can be! Some had very colorful, lively, wild dances such as Poland.

Photo from http://arts.byu.edu/organizer/byu-dept-of-dance/

Other countries, such as Palestine had more mysterious dances that were beautiful.

Photo from http://universe.byu.edu/tag/living-legends/

     I really think it is so important to be expressed because it is similar to family traditions. Family is the most important part of this life, and a country is a little bit like an expanded family with its own traditions -- culture. Through culture we can explore our ancestry, and come closer to them, or come closer to our family and other citizens of our country.

#18: Sharing Music

     This last weekend, I was able to go visit my great grandparents in their retirement home in South Jordan. They have only lived there for about a year, but they have already managed to heavily influence some of the things that happen there. Last Christmas, they gathered many of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to put on a Christmas talent show for all of their friends living in the retirement home as well. This year, they decided to put on yet another holiday spectacular with their family.
     My cousin Madison and I had prepared a song to play -- me on the piano, and Madison on the violin. However, only days before the Christmas spectacular, the piece fell apart. We searched and searched for another piece of music, but couldn't find any that were worthy of playing. Luckily, only an hour before we had to leave, we were able to find two song arrangements that would work perfectly. We rehearsed for about 20 minutes, and were off in a flurry to perform join our family.
    Sitting in the retirement home, we listened as several of my family members sang songs, played chimes, recited poems, and played their instruments. Music is my family's way of sharing joy with other people. At home, my mom and I always had recitals at several retirement homes around Christmas time, and that was something I was really missing this year. Just being there feeling the joy brought through music and seeing how happy it made everyone brightened my day. I noticed how important music had been in my life, and how much I loved to share it. Even though the songs that my cousin and I performed were a little rough around the edges, it was worth sharing because it made so many other people happy.

#17: First Day of Writing

     One of the biggest things I have learned in my writing class was the very first day I walked in. After the whole class had been seated, our professor began to talk about the importance of writing. Following a small exploratory discussion on why writing is important, my professor stated that "we come to understand life through writing." Immediately, I raced to write that profound statement down in my notebook. I had never thought about writing that way before.
     As I worked on my essays and completed my course readings for the class, my mind continued to travel back to that small statement. We understand life through writing. I couldn't help but agree that the statement was true. After all, I had always felt like I was figuring something out during the writing process. But my question was why. Why does writing bring understanding? If you're writing down your own thoughts and feelings, how does that help you understand them better than if they were just in your mind?
     Unable to come to a conclusion for my question, I simply continued to write. Slowly, bit by bit, it dawned on me. Writing helps us understand our lives because it is a form of exploration. By writing down our feelings and thoughts, we open new doors of topics to explore almost immediately. Through attempting to get a message across to others, one must learn a great deal about that topic and then put it in their own words. It encourages thinking outside of the box and being creative. Writing involves making sense of the small details. It involves picking up the bits and pieces and making sense out of them.
     As we write, we are able to come to realize how things work together, what is important, and how to use those to bring understanding to ourselves and others. It is not only understanding what to write, but more importantly how to make it make sense by exploring why things are the way they are.

#16: Theme

     Throughout the semester, I have noticed a theme of family relationships in my thoughts, writing, and assignments. I think a lot of it has been because of the focus on families and family history that my writing professor has emphasized every class. I have been constantly thinking about families and how important they are, especially because I have been living away from my family.

      I haven't ever especially enjoyed writing because I oftentimes feel that my teachers haven't allowed me to choose topics that I am interested in. Because I was never interested in any any of the topics, I never enjoyed writing, and it was very hard for me to reach the length requirements because I had no passion for the things I was writing. However, my professor for this writing class always encouraged us to tie what we were writing about to our family, and that really helped me. As I was writing, I could see the topic and how it had affected my family, and it was really cool.
     I wrote about the importance of family relationships for my research paper and realized how important my family was to my mental and physical health. I learned the importance of all of the fighting that my siblings and I had gone through. I understood why Heavenly Father put us in families, and how lucky I am to be in the family that I have.
     For my narrative, I wrote about how my father had helped me with my math homework. I was able to realize how blessed I was to have a father who cared enough about me to stay up late helping me as a stubborn little girl. I noticed how my father's personality and attitudes rubbed off on me and shaped me into the person that I am today.
     Throughout this semester, I have been so happy that I was encouraged to focus on my family. It helped me realize what is important in my life. I was able to learn the special things about my family and see what I want to make my future family like. The theme of family throughout this semester was a true blessing, and I'm really glad I was able to feel the importance of it.

#15: My Favorite Part of the Research Paper

     As a part of my Writing 150 class, we were required to write a research paper on a topic that had some relation to our families. I decided to write mine on the strength of bonds between family members, and how family relationships positively and negatively affect lives. My favorite part of this research was the realization of how important it is to experience trials within family relationships. More specifically, I came to learn how important arguments and fights between siblings at young ages are. Below is a small snippet of the part of my research paper in which I discuss the value of relationships between siblings:

Sibling Relationships

The relationship between parents and their children is especially influential in shaping the behavior and mannerisms of individuals; however, the bond between siblings is even more so. Siblings tend to form much stronger and closer relationships because they are the same age, grow up in the same time period, and they are alive for the majority of each other’s lives. Kluger wrote, “Our spouses and children arrive comparatively too late in our lives; our parents leave us too early…our brothers and sisters are with us for the whole journey,” (James). Because siblings grow up simultaneously in the same time period, they are exposed to similar challenges and are able to help one another respond to difficulties. Through that process, they are able to learn the personality of each of their siblings in a very unique and personal way.

            As small children, fighting is very popular among brothers and sisters. As annoying as these petty fights may be, they will later prove to be important. Kluger stated that “the battles that you fight in the playroom are very much dress rehearsals for the way you live your life later” (Klein). While these fights are certainly not fun for either parents or children at the time they occur, they are essential to building strong bonds between siblings. During each fight, both a weak point of one child, and a strong personality trait of another are revealed. The children are able to learn what each other’s weaknesses and strengths are, and how to stimulate these weaknesses and strengths to show. Many are all too familiar with the typical “button pushing” that siblings enjoy. My sister was a professional “button pusher.” She knew exactly what got to me and my siblings, and could phrase things in just the right way, or do exactly what she needed to do to make us furious with her. While she constantly pushed my buttons throughout my childhood, she is the one with which I formed the strongest bond because she was constantly exposed to my weaknesses and strengths.

            Because siblings participate in fighting, they are exposed to every weakness and strength that each child possesses. This is extremely important later in life as the sibling bond continues. Brothers and sisters are able to lean on each other throughout hard times because of the bonds they formed. Whether these difficult life challenges may be troubles with parents or a spouse, siblings are always there to offer advice and support. This is what makes the sibling relationship so unique – siblings know each other the best, and are therefore always there to help each other and can offer the best solutions unique to the strengths and weaknesses of that sibling. In the words of Kluger, “The power of a sibling who knows everything about you, who knows the family you grew up in, who carries half your genes – there’s nothing quite like that” (Klein). Because siblings are constantly exposed to each other’s weaknesses early on in life, they gain a great knowledge on how each sibling responds best to difficulties and which things will not help them.

#14: The Power of Decisions

     You know that feeling you get when you're having trouble making a decision? Your stomach is constantly doing flips and turning inside out, your head is about to burst from thinking too much, and you can't get a decent night's sleep because of the sick feeling of uncertainty. There are so many decisions to be made in one day -- some insignificant, and some that will affect every moment of the rest of your life. The latter are the most haunting. They loom over every minute of the day, taunting you because they hold the power to bring endless happiness or misery.

     It is at the breaking point when you look for any small amount of advice from just about any source. Family members, friends, roommates, siblings, teachers, church leaders, or trusted confidants. Sometimes even a stranger's insight can speak volumes. At these times, we thankfully have been blessed with the gospel library that we can carry literally everywhere we go. That is where I often go when I reach the breaking point, just as I did this morning. I often find that by simply clicking seemingly random conference talks, chapters of scripture, and materials from books I am able to find exactly the advice that I need at that particular moment. 

     Elder Russell M. Nelson gave a conference talk entitled "Decisions for Eternity," in which he discusses the importance of life long decisions that each of us needs to make. Through the whole talk, the one thing that stuck out to me was placed almost directly in the middle -- the focal point of his message. He stated:

            "[Jesus Christ] loves you -- each of you! He allows you to access His power                  as you keep His commandments, eagerly, earnestly, and exactly. It is that              simple and certain."

This simple statement makes all decisions seem easy. As long as you are following God's will, you can access Christ's power in helping you make any decision, no matter how big or small. As long as you are doing your best to follow His will, He will be there to help you in doing that and anything else that you need to.