School Days!

For me tomorrow is the big day, as I'm sure it is with many of you. I have butterflies, as always. I hated shoping for clothes in Utah, but it feels so good and right to start a brand new year with a brand new outfit. For most of the world you get new clothes because it is the begining of fall. Unless fall meand "over 110 degrees" that is not the case in Phoenix. For me it symbolizes a new begining.

There's just something about studying things you have never learned before. I won't lie, I'm more excited about some classes than others, but starting a new class is always exciting for me. I broke the bank yesterday when I bought my textbooks, but then I did what I always do with new (and new to me) textbooks. I read the table of contents to see what exactly I was supposed to learn in that class. I must have studied the scientific method a couple dozen times now. Somehow that makes it into every textbook for me, and sometimes I can't even figure out what the experiment is! But it is always comforting when I buy a book to know it will make me smarter.

In college starting a new year has a couple more levels for me. Yesterday was my first day living with my roommate Katy. We spent the day putting up pictures of the Savior and our families plus the miscillanious trinkets we collected. I love being able to take a little apartment and make it a home. Katy and I knew each other last semester, but I was still shocked to see how much we have in common. We love the same authors and shows. She is a psychology major and an amatuer musician and I am a music major with a psychology minor. It felt so good to begin filling our new home with beautiful art, music, words, actions, and love. I'm sure over time there will be days that tempers are shorter, but for now everything here really is perfect. We are not finished setting up and when we are I promise to post pictures. Another roommate, Taryn, will be moving in soon and we just can't wait to have her.

Today Katy and I went to church together. It felt so good to go to church with someone again. While we were there we got to meet a whole bunch of new freshmen. I loved seeing their nervous little faces and imagining how wonderful college can be for them.

New knowlege, new home, new family, new friends, new beginnings all around. I guess this is my new year. It is nerve reacking because every school year since I moved away from home forced me to grow in ways I never imagined. As a result I am mindful of and greatful for blessings I never before recognized or needed. When I first moved away from home one of the most educated people I know, my aunt, emailed me and said that I would learn more about my self and my Savior than I realized there was to learn. That proved to be prophetic. I don't want to take the time now to write out all the major life lessons I learned in college, but the list is substantial and I hope I will sometime.

Fall 2009 here I come...Wish me luck!