Friday, May 20, 2011

How Did This Happen?

Tomorrow morning I am graduating college. Tomorrow will be a magical day. Tomorrow I will do something I always said I would do. I am so excited. I am so grateful. I am so lucky to have been given the ability to endure the years of endless exams, papers, studying and stress of college. My life is forever changed by the experiences I have had while I attended college. I have been blessed with countless friendships and endless amounts of knowledge. I can't help to think about President Hinkley, who encouraged all of us to get all the education we can. Well Gordon B... I did it. Thanks for your help.

Also, Grandma Sue & Grandpa Jack... I love you. Thank you for helping me get through college. I don't know if I would have done it without your help. I miss you everyday. I know you are proud of me and I wish more than anything that you were here so I could tell you how much I love you.


Who knew that that little girl would grow up and graduate college someday? And Magna Cum Laude? I surely didn't.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Ragnar So Cal

First off I have to say... it would take far too long to explain to you all of the craziness that is the past two months and the next two months. So here I am playing catch up on the blog. Hope you enjoy. Hope I don't go another month without updating. We shall see.

Let's start with the weekend of April 15th.

First we did the Ragnar Relay. I will say that I figured this relay would be no big deal. I was wrong. Let me explain. Each team has 12 members, each member has 3 legs and all 36 legs add up to 200 miles. We ran from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island in a matter of roughly 36 hours. I was runner 1. I got to finish each of my legs first. It was grand. Tyler was runner 12. He got to be the one running into the finish line. We had two vans that had to meet every runner at the exchanges where the runner would finish and the next runner would start. We figured we would have down time. We brought movies, books & music. We didn't use any of it. Friday wasn't bad. We all ran well and that night we slept for a couple hours, girls in the van, guys out on the grass. We ran again. We ate a little. I finished my last leg early Saturday morning and then waited for the rest of our team to finish. We slept in a park for a few hours. Ate McDonalds for breakfast. I still feel guilty. Had a bums shower in the bathroom of a gas station. Medicated ourselves before each of our legs. Tyler almost got in a fight with some idiot in an RV ... "You wanna Go?". We all realized it was a lot more intense than we had planned.

I Ran 15.7 miles with a major toe injury and I nearly started to cry on my last leg. The beginning was all uphill, my toe was seriously killing me and I got maybe two hours of sleep. But the amazing thing about the whole experience is that I realized how strong I am. I realized that I can really do anything I set my mind to. I can run without a good nights sleep. I really ran out of any excuse I would typically use when I feel lazy and don't feel like working out. I am a strong person and I need to use that strength more often. I hope I can remember that feeling for the rest of my life.

Our van was awesome. We had so much fun. I will seriously never forget what an amazing crazy experience that was. I might even sign up next year!



















Then we spent Saturday night on Coronado. We chilled with some other friends from our ward. Heather and Steve are moving out of state for Steve's residency so we had to party one last time. We stayed at the Marriott right on the Harbor. Ate at little italy. Rode our bikes. Hot tubbed it up. Got fake tatoos. Ate at Phils. Revealed a lot of truths about ourselves on the way home. Our crew is like no other. We seriously all mesh so well. We will miss the Brandon's dearly!