Perspective

Sometimes you just have to look at the Big Picture.

I don't like my Tuesdays.

I wake up at 7, which is the earliest I have to get up during the week, I have to be to work by 8, I work until about 12:30, I immediately have to go to class at 1, that class ends at 2:50, next class across campus at 3 so I have to run, work again at 4, then I go see a movie for my film class at 6, finally getting home to do homework at 9.

That's Tuesday.

A friend got upset with me because I acted like I didn't care about seeing them. They told me I wasn't making our relationship a high priority in my life. Oh? Sorry that I have a job that you don't have that demands 20 hours a week and if I don't meet those demands I'll be fired. Sorry that I have homework assignments and papers to write that if I don't turn them in on time, I'm going to fail the class. It's not that I want to try and prioritize people or anything else, but there are things in my life that have detrimental consequences (fired, fail, etc.) that sometimes have to take center stage. Would I love to drop everything and hang out with people, but that's irresponsible.  I'm sorry my college friends but we have to look at the big picture. I came to college with the intent to learn and further my education. That's why I'm here and if I don't care about my education, then what's the point of being here?

Juggling Life

I have friends that like to send me on guilt trips when I choose homework over them. "You don't care about us" "Come on, it can wait" "What, do you not like us anymore?" These are words I hear all too often from multiple people. I'm sorry my dear friends, as much as I hate to admit it, I have adult responsibilities and I have to treat them as such. Funny thing is these same friends ask me "Dude, it seems like you never have homework, are you just lazy?"

Are You Kidding Me?

That's why my post today is about perspective. There is a big picture that we have to look at. There are things in life that by default have to take precedent over other things. Sometimes we have to look outside of the moment and look down the road and think "is this really worth it?" Sure I'd love to spend every night hanging out with friends and having a grand time, but if I have other things that need to be done, they need to be done first.

This concept stretches out beyond instant gratification. Many times, trials come upon us and we're left wondering "why is this happening to me?" We always seem to draw the attention to ourselves during hard times.  I am positive that God doesn't just sit in high heaven looking down at us thinking "lets put Alex in the hospital from a car accident, that'd be fun!" We are blessed to have a merciful Father in Heaven. So merciful in fact, that he allows us to go through hard times so we can grow and develop. Along with that, he never gives us more than we can handle.

"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above 

that ye are able"

Sometimes, God has to cut us down to build us up, as Elder D. Todd Christofferson told in this story:

"President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:
“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall.
“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …
“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

God puts all of us through difficult trials; a lost job, a death of a loved one, depression, doubt, fear. But he does it for our benefit and growth, and it's our job to remember the big picture. These things happen for a reason, we don't need to understand now, we just need to know that much, and it will be enough. We need to look past ourselves and remember that there's a bigger purpose to life than our personal desires.

The best part of all is that we all have a Savior who has felt our pains and sufferings with exactness to what we're feeling. I always thought that meant he felt every paper cut I'll ever get.  Now that I'm older, I realize that extends far beyond physical pain.  Jesus Christ has felt our emotional pain, our bad days, our heartaches, our heartbreaks, our despair, our doubt, our fear.  I know that during the darkest moments of my life, I've felt His arm around me, lifting me up so I can keep moving forward. We are never, ever, alone. There is always someone there to support us.

Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.”

The Lord replied, “My son, My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, 

it was then that I carried you.

AMS

Winning

Sometimes you just have to soak in the little victories.

When you have a big assignment looming over your head all day, it can be really hard to enjoy your day.

When you just got back from your first break of school since September, it can be really hard to enjoy your day.

When it's a Monday back from school, it can be really hard to enjoy your day.

I had a great day.

I did have that paper looming over my head all day, so at 3 I finally sat down an wrote my paper like a man. 4 hours later, and possibly a few hairs pulled from my skull, I had 5 1/2 solid pages about Inception written down and ready to go! Bring on Tuesday!! I'm ready for whatever you've got! This was a Win.

I went to Lowe's Extreme Air Sports today. It's one of those tumbling places with the trampolines and the foam pits and what not. I nailed a couple of back flips and decided that was enough awesome for one day. Ethan did his first back flip as well, he's growing up so quickly.  This was a Win.

I didn't have a hectic day which is unusual for a Monday.  I managed to make it to all of my classes on time, my laptop never died unexpectedly, and I never felt rushed today! This was a Win.

Finally, I went online to see how little money I have, fully expecting to see about 10 dollars.  To my surprise, I still had 150 and I don't get paid til Friday! I checked to see that my tithing check had gone through and everything! I had 150 legitimate dollars to my name! This was definitely a Win.

All of these little victories culminated to a surprisingly good day. I was honestly dreading to the core the fact that I had to go back to school today. I was also really stressed about that paper I had to write. I think I had those little victories so I would feel better tackling that paper.  It's funny how such simple moments where things go our way can make such a difference for us!  

Not much happened to report, just won today, and I won a lot.

AMS

My Weekend Update

I hope Elijah was enough to tide you over.

This comic may honestly have nothing to do with today's post, but I thought it was funny and this is my journal. So deal with it.

Anyways, back at the dorm after a much needed break from school. Being back at home with no worries or responsibilities was really nice and refreshing; I'm honestly looking forward to moving back home in 3 weeks. I can't believe I'm 3 weeks away from finishing my first semester of college! It really doesn't feel like I've been here that long. I fell asleep with my laptop on my lap and woke up to the sound of it hitting the floor...luckily it's still working just fine. I don't know why but I've been so tired the last couple of days! No matter how much sleep I get, I'm still super tired and in need of a nap all the time.

Today is completely dedicated to writing my 5-7 page analysis for my Film class. I hate that class. It wasn't anything I expected it to be, and each week I manage to find something that disappoints me more about the film program here. Oh, you want to be a filmmaker? Cool! First take this class where we try and make you appreciate stupid movies and you have to write a paper on it each week. If you're lucky, you'll get into our film program. If you stay in it long enough and we like you, maybe we'll let you hold a camera in a few years!

...no.

So that's why I'm not doing the film program. I'm just trudging through these last few weeks of that class and that involves writing 5 pages about every detail of Inception that I can possibly think of. Permission granted to be extremely jealous.

I learned something in church yesterday that I didn't notice before in 2 Timothy 3:6-

"For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts"

Sound familiar?

That's all for now folks. Just some random thoughts about my weekend!

AMS

Oops...

Well, it seems I forgot to update my blog yesterday.

To make up for it, here's a picture of Elijah Wood.

Some Day After Thanksgiving Traditions

My Favorite Time of Year has Begun!

Well, folks, here it is. Now that Thanksgiving is done with, I don't feel even a little bad about celebrating the Christmas Season! Today is honestly one of my favorites of the year. No, I don't go shopping on Black Friday, I spend basically the entire day home in fact. But I love breaking out the Christmas decorations and getting our house all spruced up for the season! In our house, we always put up the Christmas tree while listening to "Christmas with Julie Andrews"

If you haven't listened to this album, let me put in my personal plug for it: it's very, very good. Go find it and listen to it. I don't really know why, but this CD always reminds me of the start of the Christmas season.

I think the reason I love Christmas time so much is because it's such a different time of year. I mean, everyone's happy and friendly to each other, there's definitely a feeling of joy and happiness all around! TV shows are different, the house looks different, the songs on the radio are different; Christmas time is just a joyous month that sticks out more than anything! Being the nostalgic guy that I am, I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for this time of year. I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas time; my favorite being something like this picture I posted yesterday:

Of course this isn't my living room, but the multi-colored lights on the tree by the fireplace in the dark of night brings back so many memories of this time of year. I've said it before, my happy place is right here; basking in the light of a Christmas tree at night while the cold winter snow falls outside. There's just nothing like it. I was feeling a little bit of this when I saw the tree up and the lights on:

That's kinda how I feel about the entire season.

So may we all drink as much hot wassail as our stomachs can carry this season! Let's all soak in every bit of Holiday Cheer that we possibly can! I know I will be!!

AMS

Thanksgiving

Because there's so much to be thankful for.

Well if you live in a cave and just so happen to have a laptop that can only see my blog, today is Thanksgiving Day. I got to go to my grandparent's house and eat there. Thanksgiving is honestly the only day of the year that I can somehow find room in my stomach for food even though there is no room for more food whatsoever. Needless to say, Thanksgiving Day is truly a glorious holiday.

After we ate dinner, we visited my mom's Uncle Peter and Aunt Anne. Uncle Peter is an LDS film director, who made films like "A More Perfect Union" and "Mountain of the Lord". Also there is my Aunt Ruth who is fighting cancer. Since I'm leaving on my mission soon, that may be the last time I see her. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for the knowledge that no matter what happens, today was not our last goodbye.

Thanksgiving is such a good opportunity to reflect on all of the things we have in our lives to be grateful for. It's such a shame that it takes an annual holiday to remember all  of these things. In a perfect world, we would always remember those things in our lives that we're grateful for. Personally, I'm grateful for my family, especially good parents who have raised me so well. I'm thankful for my brothers and sister and that we have such a good relationship. I'm grateful that I live in a country with so many freedoms and such a great way of life; I think all to often we complain about the problems in our government, but we frequently forget the simple freedoms that we do have that most countries don't have. This land has been foreordained as the promised land, and we are all truly blessed to live in it. I'm also grateful for the great living conditions I have, a nice home (and dorm for now), food, clothes, etc. I am grateful for the good education I've had in my life. BYU is such a great place to learn, and not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for it. 

I'm grateful especially for the gospel in my life. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has made me who I am today. So many of the choices I made were based off of what I've learned from being Mormon. I frequently forget how blessed I am to have been born into the church. I'm so grateful for a Savior who has literally saved me. I would not appreciate the Atonement had I not felt its influence in the darkest moments in my life where all I can do is drop to my knees and plea to my Father in Heaven for His arm of support. He has never failed me, and I know he never will.

Before I go off on a wild tangent about all of the things I'm grateful for, suffice it to say that we are all so blessed in our lives and I'm glad I had the chance to reflect on that over a hearty meal today! In my book, once Thanksgiving has been eaten, my hands-down, absolute favorite time of the year has begun.

I bet you can guess what tomorrow's post will be about...

AMS

The Wednesday Recap

Not much to report today, just a quick update.

It was this kind of day today.

To celebrate the first day of my first break from school since September (curse you BYU), I decided to go 50% in all of my endeavors today. I thought this might get me in a bit of trouble considering I had work, but I didn't care. That's what they get for scheduling me on a lazy day. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to do anything towards making sure my plan went through, work did it all for me! When I got to work, all of the cameras were already set up from last night's basketball game (if you didn't know, I work for BYU Broadcasting as a cameraman/production assistant) so there wasn't much to do before the show. You know it's a gonna be a good day at work when the cameraman you're helping says "hey have a seat, I'll wake you up at halftime." So I spent most of the game just watching the game! Once the game was over, it was time to put everything back it its case and get it back to the broadcasting building...until my boss came up to me and said "hey don't worry about coiling that cord up, just leave it there for next game" this is when I realized...

We don't have clean up today!

The combination of all of these things made for a pleasantly pleasant day at work. And it even left me with some time to visit friends, which is precisely what I did!

So, that's a little update on what I did today. It's nice to be spending a few days at home with the family. It's helping rid my dread of moving back home for 3 months. I definitely love my family a whole lot. I have 1 older sister and 3 younger brothers. Sure they get on my nerves but they're also great examples to me in different ways, and I am eternally grateful for having them in my life!

My Family
From Left to Right: Jarom, Whitney, Mom, Micah, Dad, myself, Benjamin
Love all of them!

Speaking of gratitude, it's technically Thanksgiving Day now! I hope we all have a wonderful day with our loved ones. Nothing says "I love you" like stuffing our faces full of food together! Have a good one!

AMS

Bad Days and Bad Moods

What do I do when things aren't going too hot? 

Throw in the towel.

I woke up in a bad mood this morning.

I'm not exactly sure why I woke up that way; I mean, nothing provoked it from the night before. Sometimes, I guess our minds just insist on being grumpy. I honestly should have been pretty happy this morning! I didn't have a single class today, I didn't even have work! All I had was one thing that has been looming over my head all week...my Astronomy test.

I spent basically the entire day avoiding taking this test. I finally took it around 5 in the evening. I had studied fairly well and knew that nothing more could help my situation. I opened the test to the first question...

None of this looks familiar.

So I basically went with a "this answer looks good" approach and turned it in. At BYU's testing center, you can see your score immediately after you turn it in. I opted to not see this one. They say "ignorance is bliss" and I can't help but agree. I am perfectly content with never knowing my score on this one.  I just felt like I was "off" today. I mean, my timing and brain function was just behind on life. I was constantly forgetting things and I just had consistent miscues throughout the day...bleh. But it was nice not going to any classes or work.

So we have made it to Thanksgiving Break! After going to the basketball game with Mitch and Mackenzie, I went home with Whitney for the weekend. Nothing like spending some time with family. Me and Micah had a good chance to catch up a little bit and all is well. I guess some days life just moves on without you and all you can do is put up with it and pray that tomorrow's better. I will admit today wasn't horrible, and I'm whining because things could be a lot worse. Today was just a mildly crummy day for no reason. That just happens I suppose. Today's post is short, not much to report on a day like this I suppose.

Now I'm home in my real bed for a few days, free of obligation or assignment. That's a very nice feeling. I can't express how grateful I am for a good family. Is that a preview to tomorrow's post? Stay tuned...

AMS

Social Norms

Today's Post is about not being Socially Awkward

I must say, today was a fairly solid day! When you go to your first class and find out it's been cancelled for tomorrow, that's a pretty good feeling. But when you go to each class after that and hear the same news?...

Well, that's just the best feeling in the world. Until you remember your Astronomy test tomorrow.

Dang it.

So today my mind got on the idea of social normality. I like to imagine that every human being has a little balancing scale in their heads. One side of the scale is book smarts, the other side of the scale is street smarts. If the book side of the scale is heavier, we get this:

If the street smarts side is heavier, we get these tools:

I've found all too often at BYU that many many students here lean more towards the former. Most of these students put my test scores to shame, they could take any class, anywhere, and completely own that class. But put them in a social situation and we get these awesome moments:

I am in no way discouraging studying, it's the whole reason I'm at college! And I'm no expert on how to live my life, so I'll leave it to the scriptures.

"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."

Interesting. So you mean to tell me that Jesus Christ, the most perfect example, had to develop?? He had to learn and grow just like everyone else? Well, in that case, I probably better follow in His footsteps. I see 4 ways Christ developed. 

1. Wisdom:
• Alright bookworms, you got me. Christ hit the books (or scrolls I guess) just like the rest of us. Good for you. Actually, this shows all of us that we need to try and obtain as much education as possible; there is no capacity for learning.
2. Stature
• Stature? As in physically? Interesting! Looks like the Savior kept Himself in good physical shape. That's a pretty good example to us heading into this holiday season. (Sadly, I know I will be blatantly disregarding this in a couple of days)
3. Favor with God
• This one seems like a no brainer at first until you really think about it. In order for Christ to be the perfect example, he had to learn the Gospel like the rest of us! Personally, I think that it's really cool to think that Christ developed spiritually just like everyone else!
4. Favor with Man
• Favor with Man? As in....socially? The Savior developed social skills! Gaining knowledge and a lot of it is very important to make your way in the world. However, learning common sense and social etiquette is just as important. And if you're spending all of your days cooped up in your room buried nose deep in textbooks, you're killing your social skills like face to face communication, basic common courtesies, and knowing when something just isn't appropriate for a public setting. Sadly, I see this all too often at BYU and I can't help but feel bad for them. 

Anyways, now that I'm off my soap box, I wanted to take a minute to talk about Pledge Drives on TV.

I know we've all seen these before. They call us asking for substantial amounts of money to fund shows we don't really watch in exchange for measly "Thank You" gifts that we don't really want. All I remember about growing up is how I hated when these were on because it was interrupting "Arthur". Well as luck would have it, I got to help film the KBYU pledge drive tonight which gave me an opportunity to see these events behind the scenes. And guess what? 

I still see no point to them. 

That's all with regards to Pledge Drives. 

I don't really have much to say right now so I'll wrap up by saying that finding balance between intelligence and common sense is more important than most people know. Social skills are becoming a lost art in rising generations and I'm not really keen on having to put up with awkward people that never learned how to act civilly for the rest of my life. Please everyone who has an ear to hear, hear my plea: get off the computer and learn to be social.

"Hey Alex, what are you doing right now?"

AMS

Random Thoughts on a Lazy Sunday

Not a very exciting post, just an update on a Lazy Sunday.

Like I said, this is just going to be a little recap of my day. Nothing special, but I will keep my dedicated fans satisfied.

Yeahhh....

Anyways, I went to bed last night after finally finishing last night's post at about 2, but not before reading a text from the ward choir director reminding us that we're meeting at 8:25 to practice the song we sang in church today. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal except I'm the choir pianist. So I have no choice to but to be there on time ready to go. This put a real damper on my evening and I ended up only getting about 5 hours of sleep last night. When I woke up this morning, I showered, decided not to shave, and went to put my contacts in. This morning was one of those where I look at my contacts and think "If I put those in my eyes, I'll be placing my eye balls in the very fires of hell." So, I wore my glasses today. While I like to think I look like this:

I probably look more like this:

So I avoid wearing them as much as possible.

I can honestly say I don't remember church. I know I went...I just don't remember anything else about it...hope I played the choir song good. I am grateful and proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Maybe this blog will make me famous and they'll ask me to do one of those "I'm a Mormon" ads! "Hi, I'm Alex. I'm a professional polo jockey, 3 time Senator, former child star, and rare coin collector. And I'm a Mormon." That's enough to convert the state of Rhode Island!

I went home for dinner today. It's always nice to visit the family; especially when your sister insists on keeping the spotlight directly on her the entire evening. Always makes for some interesting conversations. I don't think we fully appreciate the value of having a family until we are alone and trying to fend for ourselves. We so often take for granted those most important in our lives. A very close friend of mine lost her great grandma yesterday; she told me they were practically best friends. Now, the closest person I have ever lost to death would have to be my Grandpa, but I was only 4 years old. I don't think I've completely gotten my head around the concept of death. It definitely doesn't sound fun for everyone. That's why it's probably easy for me to say that they're happier in heaven where they aren't held down by mortal limitations. But regardless, I know that for a fact. The beauty of life is that goodbye is never really goodbye unless you want it to be. One day, we'll get to see our loved ones that we lost again. One day, I'll get to see my Grandpa again; that's a day I can't wait for.

To wrap this post up tonight, I wanted to share a video I found a couple of weeks ago. One of my friends has a bit of a love affair with words; and I can't help but to agree with her. Words can be so many different things; deep, intense, shallow, pathetic, insightful, inspiring...the list goes on and on. Utilizing these words can create a beautiful picture mentally, and visually. Maya Angelou once said,

"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."

This is David Guetta featuring Usher in "Without You"

AMS

My Thoughts on Friends and Other Stuff

I Could Not Have Asked for a Better Saturday.

I'm splitting today into two parts: my thoughts on friends, and a football game.

My Thoughts on Friends

I got to spend the day today with my friends.  The day started with my best friends from Spanish Fork: Jake, Kelton, Chris, James, Ethan, and Wes. These guys are the best and most loyal friends anyone could ever ask for.  We went on a little shopping trip to Savers in search of a nice festive sweater.  I found one for 2 dollars which I thought was a complete steal! Granted, it is a woman's sweater but hey, no complaints from this fellow. 

Once we all had our sweaters, another spectacular person in my life, Nicole, came up from Span Fan to take some "Sensual Holiday Pictures".  This is a general idea of what I spent my Saturday doing:

Happy Holidays from Us to You

Some would argue it's a waste of time, I would say that spending time with the people you care most about is the most worthwhile thing you could possibly do.  We had so much fun taking pictures around BYU campus; and I must admit, we looked darn good doing it.

I have always had an interesting view on friendship.  Growing up, friends seems sort of elusive to me and I thought that I'd never have a "Best Friend".  Clear until 7th grade I had a hard time finding friends. I was a very awkward kid growing up. I had strange obsessions (ie. The Price is Right, The Wizard of Oz, etc.) that would be the only thing that mattered in my life at the time.  I was a pretty socially awkward growing up and had a hard time making really good friends.  I met Jake in my 7th grade English class. Me and Jake seem to have too much in common with our personalities, and they constantly bounce off each other almost egging the other person on.  Through him I met Ethan, Chris, and Kelton and we started doing everything together.

My junior year, we separated to different schools; me and Ethan to Maple Mountain High School, Jake, Chris, and Kelton stayed at Spanish Fork High School.  We still did things together, though not nearly as much as before. Our friendship definitely drifted.  By the end of Junior year, the friendship was all but over in my eyes as we all started hanging out with different crowds.  I had found a new group of friends and that was that.  As my Senior year wore on, I started feeling more and more distant from my group. I felt like I didn't belong there; but I kept calling them to hang out, hoping it was just me.  It wasn't me; I did not belong there, and I honestly didn't feel like I was wanted.  Feeling like I didn't really have friends to do anything with anymore, I remembered the fun times I had with Jake and Ethan. I had something of Jake's to return to him which was my excuse to go talk to him.  I had ignored his calls and I honestly didn't deserve his friendship but I went anyways. I spilled my whole story to him (like a girl) and told him how sorry I was for being such a jerk, fully expecting that I was going to have to jump through every flaming hoop at the circus to get his friendship back.  Then he said something I will never forget, 

"Hey buddy, I'm just glad to have you back."

It almost floored me to think that after all of the times I ignored his calls and avoided doing things with those guys, he didn't even care and was simply glad to have his friend back. That moment alone made me realize that I did have best friends all along, I just wasn't looking in the right direction.  I spent my whole summer (ask my parents) doing everything with these guys, from going to midnight movies, to building a fire pit complete with couches and a drink cooler, to nights just sitting around talking. This to me is what friendship is all about. There's a sense of loyalty that defines how much a friendship means to you.  There is no doubt in my mind that your friends have a critical impact on who you become; it's our job to make sure we pick good friends so we can become the best people we can be.

So to Jake, Ethan, Kelton, Chris, Wes, and James: You guys are the best friends I could possibly ask for, thank you for helping make me who I am today.

My Best Friends (from left to right) Jake, Kelton, Chris, myself, Ethan, James, and Wes

A Football Game and a Lucky Sweater

Tonight was BYU's last home game for the season, and my last home game for 2 years. BYU has probably the worst student section in America as it is spread out almost randomly all over the east stands.  My ticket package is "rotated seating" meaning my seats change every week. We never had spectacular seats, but this week we struck gold: North End Zone (The true student section), dead center, 3rd row. It was a cold game with a late kickoff (8:15 in the PM) but it was definitely the best game I've ever been to. Mackenzie, Ethan, Jenny, Alli, and Mike all came and enjoyed the great seats with me, and we all got to enjoy BYU wallop New Mexico State 42-7.

I wore the sweater I bought at Savers to the game because it's really warm and the temperature rose to a balming  30 degrees tonight; I very much appreciated having it.  Every year, BYU sells collectors mugs at the football games and I've bought one for the past 3 years, including this year. Hot chocolate is what I believe to be God's pure love in liquid form. I'm pretty sure I look something like this when I drink it:

But frankly, I don't care because I love it. I had a grand time drinking it, and it kept me pretty warm throughout the game.

BYU probably has the worst fans in America, and I know I'm going to get some flack for saying that but it's true.  Once the game appears to be either a guaranteed win, or a guaranteed loss, or if the game's running late and the fan in question has a Sunday School lesson to prepare, fans begin to exodus out of the stadium midway through the 3rd quarter (This after showing up to the game halfway through the 1st quarter; congrats, you managed to sit through 1 full quarter of football. You sir, are "true blue"). Anyways, this happened today of course which left the sacred front row available to us for the second half, and you better believe I took advantage of it! We spent the rest of the game cheering on the mighty Cougars from the best seats in the house.

What happened next was something I never thought would happen, and I can almost guarantee will never happen again: I caught a t-shirt thrown by a cheerleader.  If I had a bucket list, that was definitely on it.  I made eye contact with the cheerleader and screamed "throw it here" like everyone else was. Either she had a bad throwing arm or found me attractive, but she threw it and lo and behold it was coming straight at me.  This happened to me once before but it rolled off of my hand and into the waiting hands of some other scum bag. I was determined to make sure this one was going to be mine so I stretched out my hands like a pro. Next thing I know-

Congratulations Mr. Sanders: You just caught a handout at a college football game.

Later in the game, the front row was filmed by BYUtv so we did our best to look as dumb as we could for 55 million homes. All in all it was a very fun game and I had a spectacular time! As the game was all but over, I was talking to Mackenzie and telling her about how many good things had happened to me during the game when it dawned on me:

My Sweater is Lucky

AMS

Appreciating the Little Things

The first legitimate post is devoted to the little joys of life.  

It all started this evening when I had the pleasure to go to the special screening of BYU Broadcasting's filming of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this year.  Having worked on much of the pre production of the show, it was exciting to see the finished product. I compiled the credits and when they rolled at the end, I had a bit of pride coursing through me. It was the first time I'd ever had my work (as small as it was) shown on such a large scale.  Small, but satisfying.

Next moment may have been the best of the night. Because this was a special screening, many of the cast and crew members from the Shakespeare festival were there too.  Of these was the actress that played Hyppolita, she brought her two little girls with her.  After the show was over, everyone congregated in the lobby and began making their way out the doors to head home.  Much to everyone's surprise (or maybe just mine) the snow was falling by the truck load outside.  The youngest of these girls, upon seeing the snow outside, put on her coat as fast as she could while doing what appeared to be a version of the "potty dance" and screaming,

"oh my gosh, OH MY GOSH IT'S SNOWING!! IT'S SNOWING!!!" 

She then rushed outside to soak in every precious snowflake she could get her little paws on.  I had a nice chuckle over this but didn't think much of it until she ran back inside 5 minutes later screaming to her mom,

"Mom?? Get your butt out here!!! It's a winta wundaland!!"

I guess I just forgot how exciting this season is.  It took a little 6 year old girl to remind me how much I love the snow and the Holiday Season.  

The third moment happened later that evening.  I went to the BYU Creamery tonight after the show with my date, Mackenzie Treu, and Ethan Rodriguez.  While we were there Mackenzie mentioned she was hungry so I asked her what she wanted. Being the girl she is, she said she didn't know.  So I suggested the first thing I saw, pizza.  Eventually this transformed into Hot Pockets and we bought some.  I also saw yogurt for sale at $ .58 which is not a deal you turn down.  So, we bought a couple of those, and some string cheese, and next thing you know...

A Delicious Meal for 2

We ended up really enjoying the meal! We split the donuts and ate the meal in the light of a Halloween candle while we watched Scrubs.  It was the highlight of the date and we had a good laugh.  How can something so simple bring so much joy to our lives? It didn't cost hardly anything, and it was a memorable evening for both of us!

The last little joy happened when I walked Mackenzie home.  The snow storm had ended by then and we walked in the new fallen snow while we talked.  The street lights were reflecting of the new white surface and I suddenly felt at peace.  If someone were to ask where my "happy place" is, I would say it's in my living room at home, sitting in the light of our Christmas tree and looking out the window as the amber street lights reflect off of the gently falling snow.  To me, there is nothing more peaceful and joyful.  It's one of those things that really makes me feel warm and content.

"The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave a luster of midday to objects below..."

As I walked home tonight, I started thinking about these little joys in life. Why do we sometimes find such indescribable joy in such simple things? 

"20 People liked my status!!!"

And why do we have such a hard time appreciating the things we so often take for granted?

I guess the Lord explains himself pretty well in Alma:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

I'm resolving to start looking for the little things, recognizing them more in my life. I think we can all benefit from that; it'll help us start looking on the other side of the glass.

AMS