tfehT

It spells theft backwards. Why? Because I'm getting my bike back!!!

The amazing campus police found my bike (and a few others that had been stolen) in a pawn shop. They had been sold for $50 a piece! That's it! Can you imagine stealing something in order to get 1/16 or LESS of its worth? Ridiculous. Anyways, I'm just really excited to get my bike back. And you can bet I won't be taking it to campus anymore, that's what 20-dollar D.I. bikes are for.

So, this is me today:

Prayer

So this is a somewhat unusual post, but it's something that's been very important for me.

I'm amazed at the power of prayer. I think a lot of the world thinks of prayer only in dire circumstances, or as an in-church ritual (maybe I'm wrong). For me, prayer is a daily activity that blesses my life in enormous ways.

I've always been taught to pray, and even though I haven't always been perfectly consistent in my daily personal prayers, as I've grown and matured, I've noticed a difference in my attitude about life between those times when I'm consistently praying, and when I'm not. The first time I noticed a huge blessing from prayer was in 10th grade in High School. I was taking an honor's english class from a teacher who was well-known for having extremely high standards in grading. We had to write an essay that was due the first day of class on a book we were to read over the summer. The grading scale was 0-9, with 9 being the highest possible score. Well, I got a 4 on that summer assignment. The next essay we had to write was to be an in-class essay on the next book we were assigned to read. I'd never written an in-class essay. 50 minutes to answer a specific question and compile all of my thoughts about a book intelligently into a well-written masterpiece was somewhat frightening.

So, I prayed. I didn't just pray, I read the book. During the week before the in-class essay, I reviewed the important parts of the book, and prayed, and thought about what possible questions I might be asked to write about. I did this consistently each night, with lots of prayer. The day of the essay, I prayed again, and again, and again before the essay (in my mind). It was so cool to look at the paper and notice that the question was very similar to one that I had thought of in my studies that week! I started writing, and felt I had done well. I would have been happy with a 6.

A couple of weeks later, the essays were graded, and this teacher posted a few "excellent" examples of essays (without names) on the wall. As I walked into class, I heard some people by the wall say "Someone got a 9! That's crazy!" I walked over, and saw that it was my handwriting!

I know that's a really simple example, and a lot of people will say that it was just due to the fact that I studied hard. I partially agree. However, I know I couldn't have done that without the help of Heavenly Father. Since then, I have had many similar experiences with my prayers being answered as I tried my best to fulfill my end of the "deal".

My life is busy. Not nearly as busy as some people I know, but busy enough for me. I wouldn't be able to keep my head above water without prayer.

Without prayer, my life would be much more difficult. I'm so grateful for the availability of a "phone a friend" to a loving Father who knows all the answers, and that He speaks to us, both through Prophets (yeah for General Conference!) and through His Spirit.

Theft

Someone stole my bike today.

I know that there are a lot of much worse things that could happen to a person, but still, getting something of worth stolen from you is awful. I bought this bike about a year and a half ago, and have loved it the whole time. I've taken it riding up in the mountains several times, and at Lake Powell. Plus, I ride it around campus every day, which makes it possible for me to get to all my classes on time. So today, someone decided to deprive me of my mountain biking "pride and joy". I'm amazed that some people think that they have a right to take something, even if they haven't worked for it. When I noticed that it was gone, I just felt sick.

Really, it's like this person just stole a bunch of money, time and love from me. Because that's what the bike represented for me. I spent a lot of time working on it, enjoying riding it, and earning the money to pay for it. All of a sudden, it's gone.

Anyways, I'm trying to keep a smile on and remember that it's just an expensive piece of metal, and that there are much worse things that could happen to me that haven't. I'm hoping it will turn up (unharmed) somewhere, and that I can get it back. If not, I guess I'll just have to start saving up for a new one in a few years.

Moral of the story: Don't steal. It's rude. Not to mention it's one of the 10 commandments! Sinner. lol

Frustration vs. Optimism

I guess this is kind of an explanatory post. If any of you have noticed that I haven't been quite my cheery self as of late, there is a reason, and it's not that I'm depressed or struggling a ton. Really, it's mostly from school, and then it effects the other aspects of my life.

So, as explained in my previous post, I have kind of a hectic schedule right now. The main classes that are getting to me are Biostats and Differential Equations.

Let me start with Diff Eq's: The professor is obviously amazing at math, and luckily, he's american, so I can understand every word that he says. I just don't always follow what the words mean. He assumes that we know a lot more than I think most of the class actually knows. For homework, he requires a very strict format, including a form of the question, every step written out, with explanations of those steps, and then an answer check at the end. It usually takes longer to write the homework than to actually do the problem! Anyways, it's a hard class.

Second, Biostats. For the first couple of weeks, I thought this class was going to be a breeze. Then we got a homework assignment, and I realized that I had no idea what I was doing! How frustrating is that? So I stayed up late trying to figure it out, with little success. Luckily, (again), he gave us some extra time to finish and turn it in, because he realized that very few people in the class understood how to do the assigned problems. So really, I should be grateful and excited because of the two "luckily"s.

On a happier note, I think I aced the physics exam I had today, and my other class isn't really too difficult - Strengthening Families. Anyway, I occasionally (meaning about once every year or two) have to set a goal to just BE happier, without expecting things to MAKE me happier. So that's what I'm doing now.

Business

I mean business as "busy - ness", and I mean business.

There's just too much enjoyable in life to let it slip by without making the most of every second. I've been amazed at how much it's possible to accomplish in the short period of 24 hours, including the 7-8 hours of sleep that I (attempt to) get. Here's a "run-down" (hilarious office episode) of one of my busy days:

6:10am- Wake up, eat
6:30am- Go running/excercise in some way
7:00am- Get ready (Breakfast, Shower, etc.)
7:40am- Rock out to some tunes on the drive
8:30am- Class (Biostats)
9:20am- Study/Work in Research lab
10:30am- Institute
11:40am- Institute
12:55pm- Class (Physics)
1:45pm- Ride bike back up to car
2:00pm- Rock out to some tunes on the drive
2:30pm- Work
5:30pm- Go home, eat dinner

From here on, my days vary from one to the next. Here are some suggestions (to myself?) of the best things to do at this time of the day:

-Water-skiing
-Ultimate Frisbee
-Dates
-Homework
-Ward Activities
-Chill with the fam (watch psych, talk, make cool stuff, water-skiing [I can put it as many times as I want], etc.)

10:30-11:30pm- Prepare for and go to bed!

That's not even that busy!

Isn't it amazing how much we can do? ("Yes" is the correct response.)