Home Stretch

So here's to my first complete year back at school. Almost over. Whenever something is ending, I'm always reminded of how far I have to go. Not in a bad way anymore, but in an exciting, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts way. Summer is coming up and I'm pretty stoked because summer is my favorite time in Utah. I played around with the idea of going home for the summer, but it just doesn't seem to fit anymore. Minor mental break down, but I'm fine now, thanks for asking. So I was thinking today about where I want to go with my life and I can honestly tell you that I'm not really sure. My latest kick, thank you Joylin and Cultural Anthropology is still graduate in Anth obviously, because I love it, but then I'm thinking maybe I want to work for a non-profit incorporating Anthropology somehow. It seems to fit quite nicely actually. I honestly just want to do something with my life that means something. Not that my life hasn't meant anything up to now. I think our lives always mean something based on the people we touch, but I mean really do some good in the world. I want to meet the people of the world. I find that the more I learn about other people's cultures and way of life, the more compassion I have for the people of the world. I heard a song today that really struck me. It was talking about you pick the date and I'll pick the city kind of a thing. I love that. I want to be able to just call up a good friend and say, "hey, next month, let's meet in Barcelona, or Santorini, or Istanbul." Awesome. Life goal attained. All after listening to a 3 minute song on Youtube. Yep, I'm really simple folks. So, that leads me back to my present state. Do I have that option right now? Um, no, but that's ok. Right now, I've gotta focus on the big picture. That's getting this education thing done so I can move on with my life. Until then, I want to explore this side of the country. Who's in for the Grand Canyon??????

Here's a little auditory snack for ya!

Happy Easter!

I love Easter. I love the candy, I love the new dresses, I love that it's spring and always seems to be sunny on Easter. What I especially love though, is my family. There are select holidays when my entire family gets together. We always spend Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Mother's Day as a family. By family, I mean my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We pack a house full of children and people and just eat, laugh, and have a good ole time. Times like these are what I miss the most living in Utah. I grew up as close to my cousins as I did my own sisters. I am just now realizing how rare that is. When I talk about my family, I literally mean my extended family. I wasn't just raised by my parents, I had examples in my aunts and uncles. These are the people that helped to shape my life and self just as much as my parents. I feel like that's the way it should be. I want that for my kids. It takes a village to raise a child, and I fully believe that. Going home for me, is seeing all these people, not just my immediate family. We vacation together, we celebrate holidays together, we even sometimes move away from home together. One thing is for certain though, I will never be alone in this world because I have the greatest extended family in the world to fall back on. I come from a long line of strong women that I am proud to call family. My great great great? (not sure how many greats) grandmother was the first to join the church in our family. As a result her store, which consequently was her home as well, was burnt down. This was her family's livelihood. She said, "they can take everything, but they cannot take my testimony". This is the example I have to look to. What a woman! From her and her husband, we have several families that have branched out and formed quite an impressive bunch of the Ferguson family. What a legacy! If you've ever been to an LDS church in South Western VA you have met at least one person from my family. It's the whole Roanoke VA Stake. No joke. Not even exaggerating. Our family was asked to stay behind and not migrate to Utah to build up the church in our area. We were also promised that the future generations would find worthy mates. What a promise for a family! I'm so proud of my heritage. I'm proud of the women who have come before me to show me the way. I'm proud of the family I come directly from, that still get together on holidays and keep traditions alive. I miss them terribly. I know that somehow, some day, I'll be able to sealed to them and keep our family together forever. Nothing makes me happier than that thought. Happy Easter everyone! 

For an Easter snack, enjoy these pics of my crazy family.

This is what is known as the Redneck Yacht Club

How many people should fit on one of those has never been a concern of ours.

We all look ROUGH!

Oh just a few of us.

We make weddings look good.

Lora's first concert! 

Don't they all look overjoyed?

Redo!

I've been forming this blog post in my mind for quite some time now. Due to a mandatory weeklong social media fast, I came up with this idea but was unable to put it done on virtual paper. Well, I'm sitting in astronomy class, which is clearly exactly where I should be blogging right? Probably not since I'm rocking a B in this class and really wanted an A. That is neither here nor there people, stay on task, this is my blog and I'll do what I want! So, I've compiled a mental list of moments in life that I wish I could relive and redo and keep exactly as they were. Let's start off with the best feeling in the entire world....

The start of summer break. 

Is there anything more exhilarating? I submit that there is not. I thought it was great in elementary school and jr. high but that was nothing compared to when we got to high school and became mobile. The start of summer meant freedom as we had never experienced it before. We hit the town hard that night. I had a group of friends that we had named the "posse". Don't judge. We ran amok in our city and had a massive sleepover that was just so fun. Blink-182 was the soundtrack of our lives that summer. The feeling of the start of summer is something that nothing else can compare to. In college, you can't just check out of responsibility for a few months. The start of summer just means the start of working intermixed with some vacations. In high school though, it meant absolutely nothing to do but chores at home and hanging out with friends. Awesome. 

When you find out your crush has a crush on you.

This is that thrilling moment when you realize all your adolescent dreams are coming true. You truly will be whole forever now because you and him are going to get married and have lots of babies and be blissfully happy and be rich and travel the world and blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't care who you are, this moment was awesome! You ran and told all your friends and screamed like a little school girl (b/c I'm a girl and that was allowed). Destiny had finally smiled upon you. Granted it was when you were 13 and your bliss probably lasted 3 days before you had a bitter break up via a note passed to you written on college ruled paper and folded into some sort of object that can be doubled as a finger football. Tragedy. Heartbreak was something akin to Chinese water torture and you probably wouldn't be whole again. That is until that other guy you had a crush on decides he'd like to "go out with you" for a week and see if you guys have a "future". Ah, young love.

Leaving on vacation.

Let's get real, packing sucks. Also, sitting around waiting for your parents to get everything ready to leave and packing the cars, trucks, campers, boats, etc sucked real bad. Pulling out of the driveway, however, was amazing! Being on the highway headed for your destination and the weeklong worry free vacation was just stellar! I still love roadtrips for this reason, I think. Anticipation of awesomeness is almost as good as awesomeness itself. 

Meeting someone that truly inspires you.

Do you ever meet someone and just a conversation with them makes your chest burn and feel like you are enlightened to a new way of thinking? Wow, that sounds so sappy and new age but it's happened a few times in my life and it is awesome when it does! I met such a woman yesterday in the writing lab at UVU. We talked about how I should finish my degree and move to Australia. Who knows if that will happen but talking to this woman inspired me in so many ways. Thanks UVU!

Fieldtrips.

I don't know what it was about fieldtrips when I was younger but nothing got me more excited. I could hardly sleep the night before I was so excited. I would get butterflies whenever I thought about the anticipation I was feeling. Maybe it was just that, more anticipation that I loved, or maybe it was just the fact that it was a break from the mundane school day, who knows. Either way, definitely my favorite part of school.

First kisses. 

Although the moment leading up to these are ALWAYS awkward, sometimes it is completely and 100% worth it. It's one thing to kiss someone that you are mildly attracted to/interested in, but it is another thing entirely to kiss someone you really like for the first time. Nothing short of extraordinary. 

All day playing in the woods.

My childhood home was nothing short of every child's dream. We were surrounded by woods and my family had made outdoor play a way of life. We had dirt bikes and would take off to play in the woods all day, only stopping to eat. No, we didn't go home to use the bathroom, that was for city slickers, which we were not.  We were also surrounded by cousins and so every day after school was spent in the woods, pretending we were orphans who had to build a house, and live off the land. Cops and robbers was also a way of life. I would give anything to go back for a day and play with all the cousins like time didn't matter again and the only deadline we had was dark. That was important since we still hadn't rigged a very good system for attaching a flashlight to the front of the motorcycles to be used as a makeshift headlight. Very non-reliable when blasting through the woods at 20mph. 

I can think of so many more but someone has to go get Jordan fed. Bless his heart. PS, he's not obese. (He wanted me to clarify)