Snapshots & Sunshine: And.... GRADUATED!

It is so hard to believe that I have officially graduated from BYU. It has been one of the most wonderful parts of my life to be a student here.

I always wanted to go to Brigham Young University. Growing up in Florida and Texas I only had a handful of friends who had the same beliefs as me. I had several Christian friends, but growing up Mormon in the South, you kind of stick out just a little bit.

Getting accepted to come here was a dream come true. My first year here I made a TON of wonderful friends, had the time of my life, and felt like I had finally found a place where I fit in and could be myself with people my own age. This is also the place where I found my testimony of the Savior.

This was taken with everyone that started BYU Fall 2013.

I've mentioned on here before (in my pre-mission blog posts) that when I got here I was struggling to figure out where my faith was and who Jesus Christ was to me. My faith was teeny tiny, and BYU was the place that made it possible for me to really explore and learn about Jesus Christ and about His gospel. I had a wonderful bishop, great friends, fantastic professors, and the perfect environment for learning and feeling God's love. I loved that the bell tower played "Come Come Ye Saints every day" reminding me that "All is well, all is well." I loved going to the devotionals every Tuesday that seemed to be inspired because the topic always pertained perfectly to the struggles I was facing that week. I loved starting every class with a prayer and that every topic, from religion to photography to science, was tied into the gospel of Jesus Christ. (For instance, in my photography class, we had a class about the importance of light in photography, and my teacher discussed the importance of the Light of Christ in our lives...I also took a leadership class that spent an entire section discussing Christlike leadership...how cool is that??)

Instead of having a religious life and everything else separate, I learned that faith goes perfectly with every aspect of my life. I didn't live my life and then only go to church on Sunday, my life became intertwined with my faith. I realized that I could pray about ANYTHING, and God would answer.

I may get a little defensive when people talk negatively about BYU, but that's just because my time spent here has been a life changing experience. I know that it isn't perfect and the people here definitely aren't (I'm not.) but I think this place was perfect for me.

I wasn't supposed to graduate until December, but last August when Ryan and I found out I was pregnant we bounced back and forth different ideas for how to help me finish sooner rather than later. We figured I would just take my last few classes in December and we would go back and forth with taking care of the baby, but in November I made a list of every class I needed in order to graduate in April. Having only taken 12-15 credits a semester during my previous six semesters made it seem impossible to finish in only one more semester, but Ryan has a lot more faith in me than I do, and encouraged me to try to finish by April. So, I signed up for 20 credits of classes (one of them online), dropped down to only working 10 hours a week instead of 20, and applied to graduate in April 2018.

You may be thinking that we are crazy, maybe we are.... but somehow this last semester was the best semester I've ever had. I think it just goes to show that God cares about His children, and cares about what is important to them. To me, getting an education and graduating was really important to me. It is also important to me to be available to my baby when she gets here, which would be more difficult for me if I was still going to school. In any other circumstance, 20 credits of classes actually would have been impossible for me to accomplish, but this last semester I felt more calm than I ever have. I loved the classes I took, the professors who taught me, the information I gained, and I am actually sad to be done taking these classes.

Anyways, I just think that BYU is the most wonderful school on the planet, and I am SO grateful that God blessed me with the opportunity to get my education here and that He has made it possible for the church to have this school that combines secular and spiritual education into one.

I am grateful for the support and encouragement that my husband and my family have given me that have made it possible for me to get to this point. I am also incredibly grateful that they came from all over (Texas and Southern Utah) to watch me waddle across the stage to receive my (fake) diploma and shake hands with important people in a large unflattering graduation gown. It's been a wonderful week and I'm glad my baby waited to come so that I could experience it. :)

Now, I have two weeks to worry about getting everything ready for her arrival. And I am excited to tell her that she got to walk across the stage with me. :)

Some of my BYU statistics:

# of Semesters: 7
# of Apartments: 5 (Young Hall, New Heritage Building 10, Glenwood room 56 and room 72, and the apartment we live in now.)
Did I meet my husband at BYU like I thought I would?: Nope (In fact, he is one of those very anti-BYU people I mentioned. He would never apply to BYU if his life depended on it, he also claimed that he would never date or marry someone that went to BYU, look where that got him. ;) I met him in Olympia, Washington.)
Times Hiking the Y: 1 (at Midnight)
Majors declared: 4 (Pre-Graphic Design, Pre-Photography, Human Development, I finally settled on Family Studies)
# of Roommates: 13 (or 14 if the alien in my uterus counts)
# of Football games I went to: 2 1/2 (I also went to 1 basketball game, 1 volleyball game, and 1 soccer game.)
# of papers I wrote: 56
# of student jobs: 5 (Research Assistant for an engineering group, One day AV tech for a conference held at BYU, food prep/cashier/ice cream scooper at the Cougar Cafe, Mail girl in the ASB, and Teaching Assistant for Dr. Jeff Hill's Family Processes class.)
On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do I like BYU?: 11

The last thing I want to share about BYU (when I write my next blog post I'll go back to updating about the pregnancy and maybe even a birth) is what Elder Holland had to say at the Commencement ceremony. It was a very uplifting speech. (I knew it would be though... the only reason I went to Commencement was because he would be the keynote speaker, otherwise I would have stayed home. Large, pregnant women don't belong in VERY crowded buildings with thousands and thousands and thousands of people.)

My favorite part was some advice that he shared with us graduates:

"Go out there and light a candle. Be a ray of light. Be your best self, and let your character shine. Cherish the gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. The world needs you and surely your Father in Heaven needs you if His blessed purposes for His children are to prevail. You have entered to learn, now go forth to serve and strengthen."

(So far there are only highlights from his speech, but I'm hoping they will eventually upload the whole thing... but here is the link to the highlights. My other favorite part is in the last minute of the highlights. Go watch it!)

That's it! I'm excited to take what I learned in my years at BYU and to use it to bless the lives of my family and the people around me. :) I don't believe in "the best two years" or four years in this case. These have been wonderful wonderful years, but I'm determined to have wonderful years every year for the rest of my life. Thanks for reading my love letter to BYU. :)