GrAdUaTiON~~~

I officially have a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health Education from Brigham Young University!!!

Thoughts: The past five years (yes, I was on the five-year plan) have gone by so fast. Although at the same time, freshman year seems so far away. I look back on it and realize how much I've changed and hopefully grown and learned. I think about how I used to view the world and how different it looks now. I've had so many unique experiences that have truly shaped who I am right now. And I'm going to have even more in the future--it's mind-boggling!!

Highlights:
---Freshman Year: Hated BYU at first. Did not transition very well from 30% Asian to all white kids. Tried to rebel and be a punk. Didn't work out. :) Last two months: made friends with Bart and Kam and somehow it made all the distance. I still remember tearing up on the flight home. Became best friends with Nicki, Becky, Lauren. Talk about life-changing-forever-long-friends. That summer Lauren came to visit and we did Washington right with Bart. Worked at Coldstone. Ha. Good times.
---Sophomore Year: The Villa. Year One. Took a guitar class. Roomed with my best friends. Acquired a Southern accent thanks to Mari and Bridget. Petey and Anna. Matt and Kimi. Danny and Cali. Long distance, Cali trip, crazy romance. Anatomy class. Decided to be a PA. Switched my major for good. Visited Korea for the first time ever, that summer. Goodbye to Caroline, mission. Another epic year.
---Junior Year: The Villa. Year Two. Moved so I could be in Ted's ward. Then he got engaged and ruined that fun. :) Team 32. (Now Nick has a baby... whaa) Team 32. Team 32. That seriously consumed my social life but I loved it. Shelly Marchant. (who also has a baby now, ha!) Phlebotomy course. This was my most favorite year--absolutely loved everything about it. Summer: Ted and Dantzel. Bolivia. Absolutely nuts, hardest thing in the world, but so rewarding and so life-changing. Spanish Spanish. Hard to come home.
---Senior Year: Devere Court. Jessica and Jill. Goodbye Lauren to mission, Becky to SLC. Learned a lot about love. The hard way. Had a hard time adjusting to regular life again. Started volunteering at the VCC, drawing blood. ISP job. Fall semester sucked. Winter break was rejuvenation and meditation time. Winter semester came with renewed motivation and life. And with Caroline's return. :) Made more friends, had fun, met a few boys, only one is important now. Summer: first one in Provo. Cali trip, summer term classes, sort of worked, played a lot. Summer fling. Jamie--dream team. Cervical Cancer Awareness.
---Super Senior Year: Heather Cove. Grade-wise, worst year ever. Awesome job at BYU health center. Awesome job number two at ISP. Library till midnight almost every single night. ABG. Jason left for his mission. Jason transformation. Climbing. Running. Studying. Working. Chemistry. Tissue Biology. Finally picking schools. GRADUATING.

What awaits me this summer? My first half-marathon is this Saturday. I did my last long training run today: 11 miles. The GRE is the Saturday after that. I want to finish my PA school apps by July. Today was my first day of work--just orientation though. But I get absolutely amazing benefits and am so excited to start. It feels pretty epic already. :)

does this ever happen to you? where the first movie you ever saw for a certain company is what their logo reminds you of?

every time i watch a touchstone picture, i think of the 3 ninjas.
every time i see 20th century fox, i think of star wars.

does anyone else know what i'm talking about? or am i crazy?

Today I felt like a competent phlebotomist. I didn't miss at all at work or at the VCC. I am trying to prep myself for being the only vampira at my new job. Nobody to turn to when I miss. Scary business. But I gotta do it!

Got an offer from the Red Cross but it doesn't sound as good. Higher pay but first 3 months training in SLC (gas guzzler) and craaaazy work schedule. Some overnight trips even, to like St. George and stuff (which honestly sounds super fun... they pay for meals and hotels and stuff! but what if my coworkers sucked? it's risky), and you have to be available 5am to 11pm M-F and some Saturdays. She just said straight up it's a pretty tough schedule. And no benefits. So I declined. I'll take the comfort of IHC :)

I'm studying on the first floor, the only place we can find any sort of room these days. Which makes me laugh--I'm pretty sure it's because down here you get no service on your cell and I bet that's why people don't like studying here. Haha we are all so silly, so desperate to be connected to everyone all the time. Me, nobody ever texts or calls so I have no problem being in the abyss. :)

I have no more thoughts.

this is what i do when i don't want to estudiar

yesterday was my last day of classes of my undergraduate career.

dun dun DUN!

can you believe it?! it really has flown. time to move on. but it won't feel like moving on until fall rolls around and i realize for once i'm not in school on my birthday. haha. i could even go home for my birthday if i wanted! first time in 5 years! whew.

yesterday/today was super fun! last night austin and i went up to his parents' in bountiful b/c we both had some business to take care of in slc. so we got some delicious albeit expensive custard on the way up, watched the rest of the jazz game (they better win tonight!!!!!!! boo suns!!!!!), an episode of seinfeld (i don't know how you guys walk around with those things), and went to bed. this morning we woke up and after 2 bowls of sugary cereal, headed for a tandem bike ride (the bikes with two seats) to the silo, where austin's family set up a climbing gym type thing. it was way fun! i love the tandem, even though all i can really see is austin's backside in front of me, it's still fun. haha. so i did my first climbing in a month (it was scary... and i have some scrapes and bruises. i bruise like a peach!) and tried to make friends with the horses next door. then we tandem-ed to farmington to pick up austin's vehicle which thankfully passed emission inspection! then we got his car registered then headed to murray for my business. i had to do stuff for my new job, one thing being getting a chest x-ray to prove i don't have active TB. which i don't!!! anyhow, we got there at 12:40pm, they saw me around 1:10, i was out at 1:30, and we hit the weirdest traffic ever, so i was half an hour late to work. sorry mike! and now i'm here trying to get myself to study but feeling oh so unmotivated and craving fruit. yup.

but it was so nice to be outside in the (finally) spring weather and get some exercise in to start the day! loved it!

and now time to buckle down and study nonstop until this time next week.

i just had a lovely thought

I'm finally starting to save money again. This hasn't happened since leaving for Bolivia. Things have kept getting in the way... but here we go! Sure, I'm really only saving to blow it all on plane tickets in the near future (most of the schools I'm applying to are quite far away) but I just realized... it's okay to splurge on myself every now and again. It's been awhile since I've gotten myself something really truly nice. And what will I be spending my saved money on now?

A nice camera.



Finally.

first post-grad job!!

I am now a proud employee of Intermountain Healthcare!!! It's one of the largest hospital networks in the nation! Even complimented by Mr. Barack Obama himself! :)

I applied for about 13 jobs last week and kept getting rejection emails. It was pretty depressing. It's pretty hard to get a clinical job, especially just through the database system and not through a referral or in person. So I was wondering what the heck I was going to do for the next year if I couldn't find anything. And then... I got a phone call... for an interview!!

My interview was this past Tuesday morning. And that was a crazy day. I had a final at 12pm in tissue biology lab, which was the hardest final ever, but my interview was at 9:30am which meant I had to skip out on 3 hours of studying and an hour of class as well. But I figured it was okay to sacrifice that for this in the long run. For once, something else trumped school in importance. So off I went to Murray to interview!

I didn't think it went incredibly well but I felt like I had good answers for their questions and a good resume. They said they'd get back to me on Thurs or Fri with an answer. While I was there another boy was waiting to interview as well... it was weird, I felt so competitive... I didn't even want to make small talk. Haha. Anyway, so they called me later that day to get a number for a reference and it was kind of crazy getting numbers and asking people to be references, etc. but it worked out! Because they called me today and offered me the position!!!

It's pretty much the most perfect job ever for me. It's a phlebotomist position at the Rheumatology clinic in PROVO (all the other jobs I've applied for are SLC, Sandy...) and it's full-time, Mon-Thurs (aka LONG WEEKENDS EVERY WEEKEND! perfect for summer adventures!), BENEFITS, pay is decent, and they said I can start right after graduation so I don't have to stress about working it into my schedule during finals/classes!

I feel so blessed! I don't think I did anything to deserve this. It's perfect! I really feel like it's too good to be true, something's going to mess it up... hopefully that's not the case. :) Happy happy happy! I'm just so happy!!!!!

In other news, I ran my first double digit run yesterday--10 whoppin' miles! It was pretty good, pretty painful at the end there, but I finished it in good time and got to see a gorgeous side of Provo, on Canyon road. :)

And I graduate in TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy!

Tengo un trabajo excelente con amigos buenos. Tengo mi vida, mi salud. Tengo una guitarra. Tengo dos semanas más o menos de escuela. Tengo novio que me ama. Tengo mi Dios. Tengo una família fantástica. Tengo las escrituras. Tengo tantas cosas que me da felicidad y tengo que estar más agradecida. Voy a tratar empezando hoy día. Y voy a tener éxito!!! **fist pump**