Who Are You???

Alright, so it's been a while since I've blogged. I absolutely LOVE writing...but ironically am terrible at consistently blogging and/or keeping a journal. I'm hoping to get better at this and maybe someone out there in the universe will be able to relate in some way, shape, or form.

The best way that I could think of is to start one of those "blog challenges" I see floating around Pinterest all the time. So I searched for some...but in doing so, I realized why they were called challenges. Dang, people want me to get all sorts of PERSONAL on the Internet...That's kind of intimidating... I tried really hard to find one that I felt fit my mission with this, but failed. So I'm just going to consolidate a few different challenges and make my own personal challenge!

Day One: Who Are You???

 

 Hello, world. My name is Sydney. I'm Utah-born, California-raised, and living in Idaho to go to school. I attend Brigham Young University-Idaho where I just finished my sophomore year studying Early Childhood/Special Education. As of a few days ago, I have officially left my teenage years behind me and have graduated to the roaring 20's. I have two younger sisters and two dogs named Jake and Katie whom I love dearly.  I started this blog at the beginning of the year to fulfill a requirement for my online New Testament class. So yes, the first few posts will be assignments I had to post for my professor to grade. Now, however, I want to start blogging for ME. 

I am in love with all things Disney related and also quite a big Harry Potter nerd. Growing up, I wanted to be a dolphin trainer at SeaWorld and study marine biology in college. After taking one biology class in high school I quickly realized that the science field was not my cup of tea and began to rethink my life. Having grown up loving to read and write, I entered my freshman year of college as a declared English education major. I am so grateful they don't make you stick with the major you declare as a freshman because while I love English, I think taking three different classes on grammar would probably make me want to tear my hair out.

My second semester of college, I was able to find a babysitting job 2 days a week watching the two cutest kids in the entire world. Their influence, combined with the Child Development class I was taking, made me realize that I wanted to work with kids. I want to be a Mom one day. I want to have a husband and kids. The whole front porch/white picket fence dream? Yeah, I want it. My Mom was able to stay home with my sisters and I, and I want to be able to do that with my kids. So my approach to college was not "how can I have the best career?" by any means. I was (and still am) trying to figure how I can make my studies apply and be profitable in the frame of raising a family. With this perspective, I realized that the preschoolers are my people. Please don't make me go out to a party. Let me stay in and babysit a 4 year old and I'll have so much more fun. My dad frequently asks in frustration: "Are you 20 years old, or 5?" I know it drives him nuts, but I enjoy it. I don't want a cubicle and paperwork. I want to sit on the floor and color with young kids while a preschooler tells me the story of how he thought he saw a dinosaur outside his window last night. I am 20 years old--I promise--but I like preschool. So sue me!

This is all pretty basic stuff: who are you? Where are you from? What are you studying? These are the questions I answer a million and a half times during the first week of school. If you're still reading, I guess you want more than that.

As much as I've tried to steer away from the English major world, I can't seem to escape it. Maybe it's because both my grandma and my aunt are English teachers so the nerdy-ness is literally in my genes, but I love to write. Shocker: a blogger that likes writing. Ok no but seriously, I want to be a writer. As much as I've stated that I love preschool (and I totally do)...that's not all I want to accomplish in my life. I want to write a book. Specifically in the Young Adult fiction category. I don't know if I'm any good at it, but it does come semi-naturally for me. So in-between all of the other things in my life (family, church, school, work, friends, dating hahaha funny joke), I like to sit down with my dear laptop named Gertrude (name is thanks to my dear roommate Stephanie) and write. I have about a hundred pages on the current project. Will it go anywhere? I sure hope so. But only time will tell. 

Contrary to my father's belief, there's not a lot of money in the writing world. Writers are known more for being tortured and misunderstood than they are for being wealthy millionaires. Yes, JK Rowling made a killing and she is now wealthier than the Queen of England. But she's 1 out of literally hundreds of millions. I'm not banking on that kind of success by any means. 

Other things to mention: yes, I am a Mormon. No, my family are not polygamists. No, we are not Amish. I welcome any questions you have and will answer to the best of my ability, but I might point you towards Mormon.org if your question is one that I know could be better answered by someone else. OOH! This gives me more to mention!

To all of those other fellow Mormons reading this post (seriously, if you're still reading I'll be stunned): yes, I am a 20 year old female in the LDS religion. No, I am not married. Yes, I do go to 'BYU-I-Do'. Yes, I'm fully active and a regular temple attendee. But no, I am not going on a mission. These are all topics I'll cover in other posts because it's much too long to cover here. 

So why am I blogging?

Life is an adventure. And adventures are best when shared with other people. I'm so many things all at once with so many different facets and quirks and a plethora of awkward stories that I need space and room to explore and share everything I learn and experience. I'm dorky, please just accept that fact now. I definitely don't have it all figured out, but I'm trying. And I invite you to read on about my life and hopefully you'll be able to giggle along with me because sometimes life is just plain Weird. 

This is me, Internet worlds. I am Sydney and this is my life. Come along for the ride. If it turns out good, then great. And if not, then it sure as heck won't be boring! 
  
 

School Woes

This week, I was accepted to work in the Toddler Lab next semester. "What does that mean?" Basically every Tuesday and Thursday I'll be working from 7:45-11:15 with kids aged 18 months to 3 years old in a preschool-like setting. Technically they're too young for preschool (and there's a specific 'preschool lab') but that's at least the general idea of it. I'm really excited for it. That's a fun age group and while I have no doubt that it will be tough, I'm also really looking forward to it.

After receiving this announcement, I went ahead and started looking at the other classes I'll need to take next semester. I'm an Early Childhood/Special Education major. After graduation, I'll be licensed in the state of Idaho (and I can become licensed in other states) to work with children from birth up until the 3rd grade in a variety of different ways. My degree is incredibly flexible and has opportunities in teaching (in both mainstream or special education classrooms), preschool, daycare, or more specific training in the special ed field. There's a whole heck of a lot that I can do with it. The problem is...I don't know what I want to do.

One of the most commonly asked questions up here at school is "What do you want to do with your major?" And honestly...I have no idea. I know it's the right major for me. Without a doubt, I am solid on that point. I'm very excited about it. I just don't really know how I want to use my degree in the real world.

This coming September will start my fifth semester and the beginning of my junior year of college. That honestly and truly blows my mind. I don't feel like I've been here this long... and the fact that I'm almost done kind of makes me a little nervous. College is a very nice limbo between high school and the big scary real world. To think that I'm halfway done with this very comfortable limbo stage is intimidating. I'm going to have to leave the bubble of Rexburg and venture out into the real world and get like a REAL job. Weird...

I guess one of the hardest things to wrap my head around is the fact that I don't really have any plans after graduation. I probably should. I probably should have like 'big life goals' or something adult-y like that. I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on my grad plan and the classes to take between now and then. That much, at least, I feel like I understand. But after graduation...I got nothing. No idea of what I want to accomplish or what field I want to go into...

Thinking that far into the future stresses me out anyways. I probably should focus on this semester and passing the classes that are in front of me here and now. Let's be honest and just say that making up a week and a half worth of work for 6 classes is definitely not an easy task. Nor is it enjoyable. I'm not a big fan of it. We're barely at mid-terms and I already am worn out. The idea of doing this for 4 more semesters... UGH. No bueno.

So I guess for now I'll keep working on the homework that I have now and (hopefully) the higher level classes will point me in the direction of what field I want to pursue. Idealistically, around the time I'm getting ready to graduate some Prince Charming-esque figure will show up and be fabulously wealthy so that I'll never actually have to enter the work force haha. I kid, I kid. Marriage will come in it's own time frame and I am more than happy to enjoy life as a single woman before having to deal with engagements, fiancee/husband drama, wedding plans, mortgages, bills, etc etc. But that's a topic for a whole other rant...

The Piano Guys Concert :D

The past few days, I've encountered some free time which has given me lots of time to do some deep thinking (and napping...and blogging...and Pinterest-ing....and more napping...oh, have I mentioned napping?). Some of these thoughts include:

• There IS in fact an end to Pinterest. Like eventually if you scroll down too far...there IS an end... No one should ever come to know that fact. I'm ashamed to know this.
• Drugs SERIOUSLY give you wacked out dreams. Like holy cow. 
• Sleep is a very underrated coping mechanism during college.
• When I take Vicodin, I get very cuddly and snuggly and begin to inform my roommates just how badly I want a man to cuddle with. 
• My roommates are incredibly patient people
• I am SOO blessed to be going to the school that I'm going to.

 While those other points would no doubt make for an interesting blog post, I'll save those for a later date.

I've always known that BYU-I was a pretty neat place and I've never once regretted my decision to come here. There have been times (on days where the weather is particularly extreme) that I have wished that the school could be relocated to somewhere with a fairly normal climate, but I truly am happy with my decision to come here. I'll sacrifice my flip-flops for smaller class sizes in a HEARTBEAT. I'm sorry but no shoe style is so important that I'd sacrifice a personal relationship with my professors for it. I'm not that fashion savy... I honestly couldn't care less. As far as the Honor Code goes, yeah it's strict. But we get a whole heck of a lot of benefits and they're really not asking that much of us. They're asking us to live a higher law. Big whoop. I can do that. I'll keep the Honor Code and enjoy the comfort of having a shower within the privacy of my own dojo rather than a coed shower that is shared by an entire floor of strangers. We're pretty dang blessed. One of these blessings, is that the costs passed onto students are very low. This means that when we have awesome guests come (aka Bill Cosby), I can buy myself two tickets and STILL be able to eat a dinner that's a little higher quality than ramen.

Last year during spring semester, we had Bill Cosby come and perform for us. The man is hilarious. Oh goodness. Very good decision to go see him. And this semester we had the Piano Guys come to play for us.

While they're growing in popularity and have been featured on Jay Lenno and the Today Show, the Piano Guys still aren't TOO well-known. Their name is misleading--but it's a guy on the piano (John Schmidt) and a guy on the cello (Steven Sharp Nelson)--but they are SO COOL. If you don't know who I'm talking about, take 3 seconds and pull up YouTube and just listen to one of their songs. They are stinkin' talented.

So when I found out that the Piano Guys were coming, I instantly bought two tickets. Why two? Well...mostly because I don't want to be a loner and be lame by myself... Prideful, I know. But also because the hopeful romantic in me is always like "Oh this is 3 weeks away--maybe I'll find Prince Charming between now and then and he'll go with me". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being single. I loveeeee being single. I probably shouldn't love it so much and I should probably get out there and start dating more but ehh. Anyways, bottom line is this: I buy a second ticket just in case there DOES happen to be a guy that makes an appearance, knowing full well that that ticket will more than likely be used by a roommate or a cousin or something.

After several rounds of "Ok who isn't busy on Thursday and wants to go with me?" I finally ended up going to the concert with my dear wonderfully lovely roommate Stephanie.

Just as a side note in case any of you were wondering: I definitely do not recommend that you make your debut outing after surgery by sitting in bleacher seats for 2-ish hours while listening to a concert. It may sound like a good idea... but you don't end up feeling too great after it. This afternoon I was feeling a little guilty about missing school because, as I puttered around my apartment, I felt pretty on top of things and well-rested. I was able to take the bandages off my stitches and actually take a real shower (so joyous you have no idea) and felt like maybe I should've gone to class. All of that guilt was instantly gone as I finally made it into the Hart gym where the concert was being held. Holy cow. It's not even that far of a walk. Definitely felt like a wuss, but I also felt my school absence was justified because there's NO way I'd be able to make it all over campus for classes.

Pretty decent seats as far as bleachers go :)

Regardless of how tired I was and the painkillers I had taken right beforehand, the concert was still AMAZING. Those guys are ridiculously talented. My Mom had first heard John Schmidt perform at a Women's Conference at BYU a few years ago, so we've been listening to his music at our house for years. Watching him play Waterfall live... Dang. I definitely slacked off on my piano lessons by comparison. He said that he wrote that song when he was 17 to impress a girl. I'm approaching my 20th birthday and I've done NOTHING that impressive.

Nelson (the cello player) was equally pretty awesome. I have to admit, I was pretty cynical as I listened to them playing the first few songs in their set. "There's no way that those two men sitting right there are making all of those different sounds live right now". Still impressive for sure---I mean watch a video and see how quick their hands are going--but I was skeptical. During one of the breaks during their song, Nelson explained how while his hands and fingers are going like crazy to work the cello in front of him, his foot is also operating a kickdrum. He was also getting pretty creative with his percussion as he banged on his cello during some songs. Other than the kickdrum, he also had a pedal that would allow him to change the tones of sounds coming out of his cello so he could spice it up that way. And THEN he had this pedal that would allow him to record something LIVE at that exact moment and then play it back so that he could loop several different themes on top of each other all while playing live. Does that make sense? I don't feel like I explained that very well... :/ He demonstrated it--the whole looping several different tracks while playing live--and it was AWESOME.

They played all of the favorite songs they have out on YouTube right now: Rolling in the Deep, Michael Meets Mozart, Charlie Brown Theme Song, Bourne Vivaldi, U2, Pachelbel etc etc etc. But then they had fun just playing around with some new stuff.

Well....I had all of these fantastic plans about being all technologically savy and having all these little videos placed strategically throughout the rest of this post but apparently BlogSpot refuses to allow me this one shining victory today :'( To be far, it IS just after midnight...and I DID just take painkillers to go to bed...So it's very possible that it's user error rather than BlogSpot just hating me.

Anyways, a quick run-down of all of the cool videos that I now have and was planning on posting on here for your enjoyment:

• A performance of their new song "Home" by Phillip Phillips (they said they're finishing up work on the video and they'll release it soon)
• A performance of a mash-up idea they enjoy tossing around entitled "Don't Worry, Be Psycho" (aka 'Don't Worry Be Happy' combined with the theme from 'Phantom of the Opera')
• Another mash-up of 'The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow' and the Imperial theme from Star Wars
• A mash-up of Dan Fogelberg's "Longer Than" and another song ;)
• A brief clip highlighting their ability to make Pachelbel's Canon in D sound pretty dang cool
• A live performance of their viral video "What Makes You Beautiful" (also their finale)
• About 3/4 of their encore performance of "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis (then I got sick of recording and gave up)

Yessssss, yes indeed they played "What Makes You Beautiful" life. I must admit, I thought that my day couldn't get any better after I managed to take that glorious shower today (seriously: hygiene is SO wonderful), but I was wrong. When we got to the Hart building and I saw that the grand piano had the top completely off, there was a little tremor of hope that they were going to do "What Makes You Beautiful". I really really really wanted to see them do that live. Oh my gosh I wanted it so bad. But the realistic side of me was like "Uhhh you're crazy, there's no way". But yes way. They did it. And it was beautiful and happy. Seriously like you can't listen to that song and NOT smile---especially their version.

Ok way too much time has been spent on this post. I'm calling it a night and hopefully I'll figure out how to post those videos tomorrow because not only are they really cool, but they're really FUNNY! Fingers crossed I can make that work.

Also as a side-note, my parents are coming to see me tomorrow!!! :D :D Yeah, yeah I know I left them like not even a month ago...but I'm still excited. And for once, I'M not going to see THEM. They are coming to me. I don't know why that's such a big distinction in my mind, but it is. No idea why, but there you have it.

And if you don't understand a) why I'm freaking out about "What Makes You Beautiful" or b) you didn't take my advice at the beginning of the post and refused to YouTube them like I told you to--WATCH THIS VIDEO.

Word Travels Quickly...

Word travels quickly in a small town. Now I think my hometown has a population of about 2 million people. I don't think that necessarily equates to 'small town' mentality, but my apartment complex up here at school really does have a small-town feel to it. On top of that, we're all LDS. And I think the only place where word would travel faster than in a small town is in a Mormon ward. But if you combine the two---a Mormon ward inside a small town atmosphere---I'm pretty sure word travels faster than the speed of light.

On the one hand, it's pretty weird to stumble my way out to the mailbox with Stephanie in order to get some walking in for the day, and have all these people 'Oh my gosh--how are you feeling?' 'Can I do anything?' 'How's it going?' I'm not one for putting my personal business out there for the world at large. And having the whole apartment complex know about my recent ER trip is pretty personal. But at the same time, I do feel very loved and supported.

I feel like I'm pretty good at matching faces with names. I can remember faces pretty well and generally have a pretty good grasp at all of that. But I have been absolutely blown away at how many COMPLETE STRANGERS have been texting me and stopping by to check in on me as I recover on our couch. I love my apartment complex here at school: it's a pretty tightknit community and it's very easy to strike up a conversation with someone in the laundry room. We really do have neighbors rather than just strangers living across the parking lot. I've known for a long time that I love the community here...but my oh my I had no idea what that all really meant.

Don't get me wrong--it's been incredible to see how Christlike these people are. I just feel bad because I either can't remember how I know them (say no to drugs, kids), or I just have honestly never met these people before. Either way, I can't really thank them as well as I would like to!

Last night, my roommates Stephanie and Caity were enjoying the warmer weather and doing homework out on our front porch after they went to the gym. I was curled up on the couch on my makeshift bed attempting to get through an episode of "The Middle". The window was open and I heard some male voice outside ask my roommates how I was doing. They told him I was doing well and said I was in on the couch if he wanted to come talk. I was expecting an FHE brother or someone from the ward...but the guy who walked in the house I didn't recognize at ALL.

"Hey Sydney! How are you feeling? Appendicitis? That is NUTS--I mean you could've DIED! Are you doing better?"

I mean, what do you say to that?

"Well...thank you kind sir... Yes, I'm doing quite fabulously despite my stomach being stitched together... Um...who are you?!?!"

I didn't want to be rude! So I just smiled and answered the questions as politely as I could without actually using any pronouns or overly detailed descriptions of our friendship. I have a new respect for amnesia patients. It was WEIRD. I sat there in silence as he went over and started talking to my roommate Hannah about some project that they had in business or accounting or marketing or one of those classes. I don't remember the exact details because I was frantically trying to figure out how this guy knew me. Well-dressed, dark-haired, charitable...that describes almost every guy up here at BYU-I. I sat there in silence for a little bit. Looking back on it, I'd like to think that I was being polite and well-mannered as my mind was reeling...but I'm pretty sure I was just staring at the guy.

"Hey wait.... You're the guy who drove me to the ER on Sunday, huh? That was you...right?"

I probably should work on my transitions. I think I interrupted him and Hannah discussing homework and it probably wasn't my most tactful moment, but I was pretty excited to have finally solved The Case of the Mystery Guy. He grinned and agreed that yes, he was my chauffeur and I got a chance to thank him for driving me. So that at least was good from all of this, even though I felt like a total crazy person because of it.

I woke up this morning to like 3 text messages each from an unknown number wishing me luck and to feel better. Who are these people and how did they get my number? Not a clue. But it has been amazing to receive such an outpouring of love over the past 24 hours.

 I have more people than I could ever possibly remember to thank offering to help me out in any way possible. "Let me know if you need anything, ok?" Ok... I will. But I can't really think of anything that I can be helped with. The biggest blessing for me today was my roommate Caity helping me wash my hair in our sink. I didn't want to get my stitches wet, but I really really really wanted to  so I didn't get my stitches wet. She paused her homework to do that. She didn't need to--but she did. It was very simple, but meant so much to have her help me like that. I appreciated it.



All in all, Day 1 of recovery is going well. Got up and walked around outside for a bit. If I had any classes in one of the buildings closest to my apartment, I'd probably start going to class. But they're all located really far up the hill on the second or third floor...and I don't think I'm up for any hiking of that kind just yet. I feel pretty good--everybody keeps asking me that. While I'm hanging out on the couch, I feel totally fine---I mean, maybe like I did 1 too many sit-ups the other day--but nothing excruciatingly painful. So when I'm lying on the couch and watching each of my roommate trickle out to go to class, I can't help but feel a little guilty. From that position on the couch, I feel like I should be up and going about my daily life too. It's only once I sit up and start moving around the apartment that my body is like "Ahem, excuse me--remember how we were just inflated with air and sliced open and poked and prodded and cut and then stitched back together?" Ah yes...that just happened. And then I slink back to the couch feeling weak and defeated.

So far, my abdomen/stomach/tummy/appendix-region hasn't even been the most painful. I've had the most pain in my right shoulder. Weird, right? Apparently it's totally normal after this kind of surgery though. The surgeons inflate your stomach so they can get in there and 'laproscopically' (again, no idea how to spell that) do their thing and take out your appendix...but then there's no way to just deflate all of that gas out of you. So it bubbles around and pushes on all your other internal organs and eventually rises up to your right shoulder and settles there, painfully, until it decides to work its way out of your system. The nurses all said it's pretty typical stuff. It just feels like I slept on my shoulder wrong or that there's a big knot up there... But go figure! I get my appendix out and my shoulder is in the most pain. It's a strange, strange world. In the words of my dear Aunt Cynthia: "They pump you full of air and then don't even bother to burp your poor unconscious body?" Uhh nope. Guess not.

Each of my professors have been incredible to work with. All have told me not to worry about anything until next week and have been willing to let me make up tests and presentations when I get back into the swing of things next week. Will I have my hands full next week? Oh absolutely. But everyone has been so kind and flexible. It's taken a lot of stress off of me and allowed me to really take it easy guilt-free.

I've been very, very blessed with fantastic family members, roommates, ward family members, neighbors, classmates, teachers, bosses... All of you guys: you all rock! I love you all! You're just the best :)

I felt like I had more to say in this post... I guess I don't. I guess that's what happens when you blog 2 days in a row and there's still not a whole lot to say....

I'm very well-taken care of and have been shown more love and support than I could ever possibly thank everyone for. But for now...I think it's time for a nap.