The Happiness Project: A Blog Series

In 2012, for one of my EMPA classes, I had to write a paper titled "The Happiness Project" where I analyzed my happiness in various areas: personal, my best possible self, my job, and if I had all the money in the world. Recently, the idea occurred to me that I should post that here for posterity's sake. There are some real gems in there. Ha ha! So enjoy the series over the next four days . . . if you happen to read them.

3:33 Minute Video of My Trip to China

One of my very talented classmates that I went to China with, Dani, created this video of our trip to China. Kind of a fun little flash back of a really amazing trip.

Enjoying the Indian Summer

Well I'm finally getting around to blogging about all the stuff I've been up to since August. So I'm gonna do it in quickstep fashion.

For my friend Janie's birthday in September, Mike and I joined Janie and her fiancé, Ty, in St. George for the Tuacahn production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and dinner and hanging out. The Tuacahn theater's surroundings are amazingly beautiful - it's surrounded by red rock cliffs that St. George is famous for. Plus Mike and I went mountain biking at JEM, Gooseberry Mesa, and Thunder Mountain. We laughed the whole weekend that Mike and I were the short couple (we are 5'4" and 5'8")  with Janie and Ty being the tall couple (they are 6' and 6'5") - so we took a picture with them behind us to be funny about it. Ha!

We've also done quite a bit of mountain biking all over the place: Dutch Hollow near Midway, Utah; Bennie's Creek near Payson, Utah; and then a bunch of trails down by Moab last weekend. Moab is definitely a full-suspension mountain bike required destination - I think I'm done trying it on my hard-tail and my legs with all their bruises and scabs can speak for me. And speaking of mountain biking injuries - Mike injured his other shoulder/clavicle yesterday. He has an AC separation. No bueno. I hope he doesn't give up on mountain biking with all his injuries this season!

Graduation Celebrations!

Graduation was stressful! And really a lot of fun. Mom and I went to Commencement on Thursday and it's a good thing I went because that's where I discovered that I had the wrong color hood. I had a chance to get it changed out before Convocations on Friday, where I was.... speaking! Yes. Speaking. I was given the honor to give the student address at the Marriott School's Convocations. Giving that student address is why graduation was so stressful. I had to write the address, practice it, be nervous about it, stew over how I'd be speaking to the largest audience that I've ever spoken to, and it all had to be profound and succinct enough to fit into a three to four-minute talk! Thankfully, it went pretty well. And everyone was so nice to say I did a good job. 

Here is my talk in case you are interested in what I had to say: 

"When I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree ten years ago, I celebrated with style. I went on a cruise. I moved into a condo that didn’t have an apartment number. I got a big girl bed. I thought, “Never again will I be made to do homework.” For a while I was satisfied with working, spending all the fabulous money I was making, and going on grand adventures. And then I discovered that I missed learning. Determined to still not do any homework though, I took up new hobbies like canyoneering, dutch ovening, researching my family history, taking piano lessons, mountain biking, and myriad other hobbies. A little later on, I felt I needed to do something more meaningful than collect another hobby . . . like go back to school for a graduate degree. And so I did. I got so much more out of it than I anticipated, because I discovered that I love learning and that the education I’ve gained will enhance every role I may play in life.

"I think Socrates sums up my thoughts better than I can when he said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” I love the imagery of that quote: a flame, lasting forever, growing, and consuming everything around it. I might have thought my vessel was filled up after I finished my bachelor’s degree, and I might party it up a little to celebrate graduating with my master’s, but I’ll never stop learning. Obtaining both of my degrees taught me that lesson: to love learning. And the more I learn the more I realize I don’t know nearly as much as I think I do. The Lord promises and warns us of the following, which I think applies to learning in general, “I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have” (2 Nephi 28:30). 

"I’ve also found, in my own life and in the lives of my family and loved ones, that the education we gained while attending school here at BYU has helped us in every role we’ve had so far. The education we’ve gained isn’t limited to just academic learning, but also spiritual and social learning and general life experiences. I was a Zoology major for my undergrad and yet I haven’t done a single thing with that specific knowledge base. At the same time, I’ve been able to magnify my church callings and strengthen my testimony because of the study habits and work ethic I gained here. I think I have better people skills because of the learning opportunities I had on how to hold tough conversations with teammates and roommates. On the flip side, I also learned how I’m supposed to serve, support, and love the people around me, and consequently I have some of the dearest relationships I’ve ever had in my life thus far. Sometimes I get this notion in my head that the education I’ve gained requires me to go off and save or conquer the world. And then I remember “. . . that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6). Because of the things we’ve learned here at BYU, we can have a positive impact on others through little actions on our part; whether it be in our role as spouses, mothers, fathers, siblings, visiting and home teachers, citizens, neighbors, and friends. Our education will enhance our seemingly “little” roles as much as it will the bigger and more visible roles we may play.

"May we ever continue to kindle the flame of learning and remember that it benefits us in every role of life. We’ve entered, we’ve learned, and now we have the opportunity to go forth to serve. Congratulations to all of you!"

And... I guess for posterity's sake, I'll mention that my  name was listed in the convocations program so many places: for speaking, for graduating with high distinction, for receiving the Lennis M. Knighton Award (which is given to the EMPA student with the highest GPA in the graduating class), and for being a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. It's really crazy! Because I feel like I barely graduated with my dignity when I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree. But I guess I found my niche in this Master's program since I did so well! I never would have dreamed that I would graduate with a 4.0 GPA. :)

After convocations, my family and Mike and I went to dinner at La Jolla Groves. It was wonderful! Mom, Dad and Joan, Jill and Mike, Teri and Kelly, and my Mike celebrated with me. 

Saturday night, Mom, Mike, and I went to Sundance's Outdoor Amphitheater production of Annie Get Your Gun. It was such a blast. The show was great. The company was wonderful. And Sundance is just plain beautiful. 

I'm laughing pretty hard here because Mike wouldn't smile for the pic, until I tickled him! 

Mt. Nebo Followed by Some Mountain Biking

Mike and I decided to be really crazy on Saturday and hike Mt. Nebo (elevation 11,928 feet) and then go mountain biking afterwards since both of us have always wanted to try out some of the mountain biking trails off the Nebo loop.

The hike up to the peak of Mt. Nebo was harder than I expected it was going to be. I read that Nebo's trail had an average grade of 12%, but then I discovered as I hiked that the trail goes up and down the whole time! You'd gain some elevation and then immediately lose it. And there were two really steep sections that just went straight up the ridge line. I don't get why they didn't put switchbacks into those sections of the trail. It made it hard to get up and come down. Once we got to the top, it was an amazing view! And a great sense of accomplishment.

And then the mountain biking. At the very first, I could definitely feel that I had hiked a peak just a few hours before, but then my body seemed to hit a second wind and I felt great! The Blackhawk trail was interesting. We tried a shortened version of it that was supposed to be a lasso shape. The initial 1.5 miles had quite a bit of climbing but then we had a very long downhill that as I was going down it, I was dreading that we'd have to come back to climb it. After that, the trail was way fun! Little ups and downs the whole way to the Blackhawk campground. At that point, I was thinking it would be good to turn around and just do an out-n-back since we were already at mile 5. But Mike wanted to try the lasso. So we went off hunting down the trails for it. And we had a hard time finding the trail intersections! We found them, thanks to Mike's GPS and mad GPSing skills, but we had another monster amount of elevation to gain to get back up to the paved road which we supposedly had to cross to find the trail that hooked us back up with the Blackhawk trail. But by the time we made it to the paved road, both of us had lost all of our gas and energy. So I put my foot down and demanded that we take the paved road back to our car. And we did. Apparently, Mike's suggestion to continue on the trail was just a test to see what I would do. Ha ha!

We might have bit off more than we could chew since Mike is barely back on the bike post-broken-collar-bone, and I'm still-out-of-shape-post-China-and-no-exerciese. But we survived!

panaramic view from the top

Everything I Missed About the USA

To celebrate being back home, I compiled a list of all the little things I missed about the USA:

• Smoke-free buildings
• Endless free water at restaurants
• Unrestricted access to websites
• Soft mattresses
• Variety of meal foods (e.g. breakfast foods vs. dinner foods)
• Potable tap water
• Trash-free roads and sidewalks 
• Trash cans on the sidewalks
• Clothes washers and dryers
• Organized and obeyed traffic laws
• Pedestrian right-of-way
• Green salads
• Lines to checkout at the market, get on the bus, etc. (they all just crowd in!)
• Real hotel housekeeping (not just taking the trash and replacing the towels, but actual cleaning)
• Visa and MasterCard are taken everywhere

A Little Travel Miracle

So.... I don't think I can ever travel in economy class on an international flight again ... because first class was AMAZING!! Somehow, a little miracle occurred and I got bumped to first class for my longest flight - from Seoul, South Korea to Los Angeles (that was 11 hours)! It was really crazy to walk into the plane, show the flight attendant my ticket, and have her say, "Upstairs please." I was thinking, "Is there economy seating upstairs?!" Nope! There wasn't. Just first class. I sat on the edge of my seat for a while expecting another flight attendant to come tell me that there had been a mistake. But no one came. And so I took full advantage of that awesome first class seat - I reclined it back until I was flat and slept soundly, without any drugs to help, for half of the flight (as I planned).