||the bittersweet side of lemonade||

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. This analogy is perfect in my life right now, as everything seems so bittersweet. Right now, my first year of college is coming to a close. It seems as though we added enough sugar to thoroughly enjoy the lemonade just in time to have to say goodbye. These last couple of months I’ve gotten so much closer to my two roommates: Danielle and Suzanna, and on top of it, I’ve made such great friends that it makes the thought of saying goodbye hard. It feels like we just started getting attached to each other and now it’s time to separate for the summer. Saying goodbye in college is weird. You don’t know when you’ll next see your very best friends again. Two of my roommates are leaving on missions to Canada and Italy for the next year and a half, Suzanna is moving to Spain for the Summer, and I’m coming back to Summer school without Danielle. All six of us roommates will be nowhere near each other so even the thought of signing up for a checkout time is hard. It’s just hard to know what the dynamics will be like when everybody moves, but I already know that I’m going to miss them like crazy.

These last couple months have been some of the most memorable in my life. They have been full of dance parties, jam sessions, late night talks, and even just studying together. In remembrance of good times, here were some of my favorite moments:

My best friend and sister hit her mission halfway mark back in March. At this point, she is officially over the hill and I have started to count DOWN rather than up. Only 8 more months left. :)

My roommates celebrated my birthday with homemade red velvet cupcakes and Cinderella balloons. Then my parents took me up to Solitude to do my favorite thing in the world: Skiing! It was the most perfect day: no crowds, fresh snow, and shining sun.

We celebrated Pi Day from midnight to midnight, starting with Pi in the parking lot at Smith’s and ending it at a Pi Day party with our best friends Adam, Daniel, and Brandon watching Life of Pi and of course eating MORE pie.

 We took some of our close friends to the Festival of Colors! I knew the colors won when I had purple tinted hair for about a week afterwards.

We had our final Women’s Chorus Concert: “Sparkle” I learned so much from my participation in Women’s Chorus this year. Sister Applonie takes the time to not only teach us music, but to teach us about the love of the Savior. We opened the concert with the song “I Thank You God.” The lyrics come from a poem written by e.e. cummings. I have felt these words apply to my life especially as of late, with General Conference and just realizing all the wonderful people surrounding me. The poem goes as follows:

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees


and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything


which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,


and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth


day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay


great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing


breathing any–lifted from the no


of all nothing–human merely being


doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and


now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings

We were lucky to have our friends, the Watanabes, visit us over Conference Weekend. They were able to get us tickets for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions. They were all great sessions, but the one that hit me the hardest was Sunday morning. I had so many of my questions answered, including answers to questions that I didn’t realize I had. One of the main ones was an answer on what to do with the possibilities of a minor. I received one of the most direct and straightforward answers I have ever received. I am to minor in Music so that I can someday serve as a missionary of music in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

I learned so much from this semester growing closer in friendships and learning more about Christ through His everyday gifts. I am so full of gratitude to my best friends and the experiences I have been bless with that I couldn’t help but quote e.e. cummings in exclaiming “I thank you God for most this amazing day!”