3 Rather Important Things I've Learned at BYU (outside the classroom)

Well, I sit here with no homework and no motivation to keep packing to move to California.  So I sit, and I ponder, and I ponder about the last 4 years of my life here at BYU.  When my parents took me here as an eight year old, I still remember how much I fell in love with the campus.  It's so vivid in my mind that I can remember the exact locations that my parents took me to and I smile still every time I walk past them while rushing off to my next class. For ten years I worked so hard.  I remember coming home from school as  a fourth grader telling my mom I did so well on a test because I pretended I was taking it at BYU.  BYU drove me.  For that I will always be grateful for.  Everyone needs something in their lives that makes them want to be better, and better, and for me that was BYU.

When I got accepted, I cried so hard I couldn't breathe (seriously, while trying so hard to breathe my parents repeated to me that I made it in, just in case I read it wrong).  Life was surreal.  After a whole decade of dreaming of going to this amazing university and working so hard in high school, it was all worth it.  I remember giving the most grateful prayer to my Heavenly Father that night.

And now, as these four years come to an end, it's suddenly over.  But really it's not. That's the beautiful thing about my four years at BYU, it's not just a center of learning to get a piece of paper, it's a place to learn for life (please excuse every cliche things I say in this post).  BYU's motto is "Enter To Learn, Go Forth To Serve".  I feel that my time here has been a learning ground for me to not only better my own life, but to learn how to serve others the best that I can for the Lord (and the fact that I studied nonprofit management here).

So here are the three overarching things that I learned here.

1. There is so much more to a person than grades- You have to learn this in order to survive at BYU.  With a 3.9 GPA in high school, I thought for sure college would be a little harder, but I could handle it.  I wish someone slapped me across the face when I said that out loud once while a senior in high school.  BYU is HARD.  It's competitive.  You get here and you realized that everyone else is as smart as you and that makes you feel small.  I have struggled pretty much my whole time here with academic self confidence.  In other words, on BYU's campus I've always felt dumb. I let myself feel dumb for too long.  It honestly was not until my third year at BYU that I realized that your academic ability isn't all that defines you at BYU.  When I realized that, life seemed to go better.  It wasn't that I let myself slack in my classes, but as you value yourself more as a person you seem to do better all aspects of life. 
2. People are in your life for a season for a reason- That wasn't meant to rhymed, but I'll take it.  I remember the end of summer term at BYU.  I had grown so close to so many people in my hall and ward, and we were all moving to our fall dorms, meaning that we would no longer all be together.  I cried and cried when the greatest summer of my life was over and I realized things would never be the same with everyone.  My aunt picked me up and brought me to her house and helped me feel better.  She told me then, "You need to get use to change, there is no escaping it while you are here at BYU." It is so true.  Every semester your world is altered and each time you move, and people get married, and people go on missions, people leave your life.  I always thought that great people in your life are meant to stay for ever.  But I've learned that the greatest sometimes are the once who aren't meant to be around forever, but just for a season.  There have been several people that I have learned to love.  Friends I never thought I could grow so close to.  People from freshman year who I thought I'd know until the day I die.  But life happens.  A wonderful life happens. We all go our separate ways, and you realize that the good has been had, and it's time to move on.  There are people who I haven't talked to in three years that I still have fond memories with and cherish the friendship we had.  But we grow and we move on, but it doesn't mean that those people weren't in your life for a reason.  
3. No matter how hard you plan, the Lord shows you where to go- Ask me in 2010 where and what I thought I'd be in 2014,  it'd be nothing like I am now. But tell me how happy I will be in 2014, and I will cry with joy.  It's true.  My "planned" path while at BYU took a sharp turn several times while here at BYU.  If anyone knows me well, they know I am a planner and a worrier.   I have to have my life planned out.  I was definitely smacked a few times trying to do that.  Each time I felt I needed to change course, it didn't feel comfortable; it didn't fit my "plan".  But I look back and am so grateful that I wasn't more stubborn than I already was.  I let the Lord take my feel out of the sand and move me in the direction that I needed to be going, not the direction that I had planned to go. Because of the Lord's direction, I am where I am today with my husband and my career path and couldn't be happier.  

THANK YOU BYU