Sunday was the first day that I met anyone from my ward besides my current room mates. Sitting in church was quite the humbling experience during testimony meeting. It really made me realize how blessed I am to be where I am today. You might tend to think that I mean hot girls or something were there. Well, that is not really the case as all. ( unfortunately) It was more of the fact of where I am being blessed to have the support that I do. I have been able to afford most but not all of this semester on my own. Hearing other students talk about how they did not know if they were going to be able to stay up here throughout the entire semester due to lack of funds or how a miracle happened the day before and they were able to get a last minute flight into town and attend school was very odd to me. I knew that college students were poor. I had no idea that so many students had to do it 100% on their own and could not get any help from anyone. In that experience I had felt a little pit of pride at the same time as sorrow and humbling. I will talk about pride a little bit later.
Over the past few days I am slowly getting used to the idea that I will be up here for about 4 years. This idea can scare you at times, but there are so many instances where you feel so happy that you will be here for that long. I have always been the last one to admit to how excited I am to be surround by such great examples of how to live and people who are so obedient and such. But there is no denying the fact that you can see a 100% difference in the happiness of the people around here compared to California. I reflect back to a point in middle school. There was a time where I was asked by my friends why I smile so much. I don't remember the response that I gave but here I know why everyone does. Your surrounded by good examples. You have lots of rules to live by that only brings more happiness.
Last summer I was an efy counselor. Being at efy is about the same experience as I have had here the past two days. You are surrounded by people of the same faith and everyone tried to abide by the same morals and standards.( for the most part) Being at EFY both as a youth and as a counselor were some of the best moments of my life. Was it fun? Of course. Why was it so great though? The feelings of happiness and the absence of temptation of the world around you.
Over the past two days, there has been two instances in which I reflect on over and over and love the fact that I have the opportunity to attend things in which this might happen weekly. First of all, every Tuesday at 2 pm campus completely shuts down for one hour. There are no classes being held, no office open, no where to get anything on campus from 2-3 on Tuesdays.
Every Tuesday we have a devotional where someone speaks to us like a fireside or even like a normal Sunday at church. Yesterday was our first Tuesday. I can honestly say I had no desire to go. I had a friend ask me if I wanted to so and I said sure why not. We ended up going into a different building to watch it then the main one cause we were not dressed up in church clothes which they ask us to do for respect of the speaker in the main room. The speaker this week was President Clark. He is the president of BYU Idaho. He spoke on pride. It was a very powerful talk to me. Pretty much a slap in the face in the attitude I had coming up here. Part of this is the reason I am starting this blog. To show everyone the impact on things that happen up here. He talked about many things in which he pretty much said that everyone has a level of pride but its the level your at that can make a difference in your experience while going throughout life. I know that I have been prideful without the right to be and look forward to working on that.
Along with president Clark's talk that kinda felt like EFY all over again, I had a book of Mormon class today. It is a required class while up here. Over the past 24 years of my life I have read it just a few times and to be honest don't know it very well. Over the next 12 weeks I look forward to remember more of what I have read rather then reading it through just to read it. Anyways, in this class, our teacher is a cool guy. Being in there just reminded me of how great the weeks Ive been at efy throughout my life and I began to think. Right there and then, I realized that I at EFY in a way. Same type of people. Same rules. Same everything.
For the next 4 years, I will be able to enjoy this type of atmosphere every week. Devotionals on Tuesdays. Talks in which are geared for people my age. Speakers who know what they are talking about and can deliver it in a way that can motivate you. Teachers who care for you. Who not only want to get to know you, but some even require you to come to their office and talk to them. Its amazing that in two days I have gone from looking forward to the sand dunes, girls, and semi my education to now looking forward to the experience I am going to have in changing my life. Now, I have only one more thing to get motivated to do......... GYM!!!!!
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