An Adventure & Amanda

There seems to be a common theme of frustration whenever I talk to anyone who has been applying for internships.  Believe me, I mean it when I say "I know how you feel." Thursday night Kyle and I cried some tears of joy as we realized that our seven-month trial of patience and faith was finally [[hopefully]] coming to an end...a happy end.  Kyle has been diligently applying for internships since September and even though he had submitted 100+ applications and had many contacts/promising outlooks nothing was working out .  I tried to be very supportive of Kyle through the entire process but may have hit a breaking point when I "filled" out my calendar for May and realized the great unknown that was post-May 3rd. Okay fine. So we'll just stay in Utah for the summer and work.  Kyle and I both found jobs and I even started making a Utah Summer Bucket list. Then Thursday night Kyle was working on his computer when all of a sudden he got really serious and ...

Well, I am finally a college senior.  I MADE IT. Although I am beyond excited to be done at BYU, I felt a little melancholy as I walked across campus today.  My freshman year was not the smoothest and as I reflected on how I could have made this experience better, I decided to pass my knowledge along.      1. GO TO CLASS.  Most freshman classes have 200+ students and so taking attendance is impossible.  Initially I saw this as an opportunity to sleep in, watch Lost , and ultimately ditch class.  I am here to testify that missing class is not worth it .  It is oh so tempting but I promise that you will look back three years later and kick yourself when you look at your grades.      My friend put it in a really motivating way: tuition costs about $2,375.  Let's assume you take the average freshman load of about 14 credits.  That means that PER credit you are paying about $170! You can buy 34 Little Caesar's...

Okay, okay, I'm sorry.  I realize it has been a while since I have blogged.  In fact, I have started several posts over the past month but for one reason or another I never finished them.  So... what have  I been doing during this hiatus anyways? Well, for one, I've been changing students' lives.     [[whoops, was that dramatic??]] Fine, maybe I did not change the world or alter anyone's life trajectory for the better but I have been consumed in teaching 31 sixth graders...and let me tell you that is not an easy task.  Emilee and I pull up to the school on our first day and we see girls wearing MAKEUP and lockers...they have LOCKERS (and pinterests and iphones and attitudes; what .)  Emilee is borderline crying and I am nervously laughing.  I think we were both about to hightail it back to our favorite 2nd grade class. But looking back on our experience I have decided that sixth grade is like that boy you just can't figure out- you have...