the holy land

shalom.

there are lots of thoughts i have on this land.

It's been a month since this adventure.

things that happened or i gained:

the knowledge that the Lord lived and died for me. 

I was walking where he walked.

i felt incredibly loved.

my knowledge of who i am was so much stronger.

i was suddenly more confident than i have been before.

I knew (although this sounds quite crazy) that someone did not want me to go.

I was battered and questioned all before the trip.

I knew that this trip was something special. I knew because the pull of the adversity was so so strong right before the trip

okay i don't know.

it was lovely and beautiful.

there was an ache of wanting the truth to be spread through out the city

This is me in the old city--i apologize for my appearance lol

the sea of Galilee was the most wonderful place. 

powerful feelings.

okay i wasn't super cute on this trip but here is the garden tomb. 

CHRIST DIED BUT HE LIVES AGAIN

no doubt in my mind in this

 

the most interesting thing was having a Muslim Palestinian guide & a Jewish Israeli guide 

then us. a bunch of mormon kids. 

One of the most powerful lessons was they made us choose between 

our passports

and 

the book of mormon

the shock on their faces when everyone walked to the Book of Mormon

they couldn't believe we would give up ANYTHING for our religion

It was a testament of just how strong our youth are

how we love the lord. 

when actually questioned i would say every time my religion

nothing else is more important to me.

nothing.

in the big picture of things 

MY TESTIMONY

is the thing i'm most proud of.

so if youre questioning if you should go take a visit to the holy land

well these three things hopefully kinda change your idea of things

1. YOU WILL FEEL CHRIST

2.  YOU WILL SEE MIRACLES

3. YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON OTHERS WILL CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

YOU WILL SEE PEOPLE AS GODS CHILDREN

graduation. & onward.

surprisingly  i graduated. 

seriously my counselor was about to faint when she heard i finished everything on time.

ok kids. 

mostly 16 year old me. guess what?

i spoke at graduation!

who on earth let me speak??

not sure (jk shoutout to ms. brough, ms. bliss, and the principal lol)

okay so my future friends can see just how clever i am here is the speech. 

bear with me.

Congrats class of 2017. You’ve graduated!

And all I can say was this wasn’t like High School Musical at all.

But what was our highschool experience? Who is the class of 2017?

Well let’s see.

Not every senior here has a hydroflask.

Not every senior drives a jeep.

Not everyone bleached their hair or got a spray tan the night before the dance.

Not everyone went to football games.  

Not everyone hung out in the parking lot late at night.  

Not everyone acted in the school play or held up traffic walking to the seminary building,

but

every single senior here is... a titan. Forever.

Many of you will be receiving advice from well meaning family and friends.  Most sounds super awesome at first but after thinking about it a while, most advice is actually pretty bad.

Here is my list of  “advice that sounds good at first, but is actually terrible: high school graduation edition.”

Number one:    “Live like everyday is your last ” - if everyday was your last you would say goodbye to everyone you know. You’d take insane risks knowing you’ll be gone the next day.  You wouldn’t go to work or go to school or think about the future.   Don’t live everyday like it’s your last.  Live every day like it’s the first day of the rest of your life.

Number two:  Just be yourself - sounds like good advice, but it’s not.  You shouldn't just be yourself.  You should always strive to be your better self.  Don’t settle for who you are today - invest in yourself and become the better you.

Number three: Never give up on your dreams.  What could be wrong with this advice?  Well, here’s the thing - chances are that your dream of marrying Beyonce won’t come true.  

For one, She’s married

And She’s kinda old (like 32 or something)

And finally, I seriously doubt she really wants to spend her evenings in the skyline parking lot with you.  

Dreams are great, but reality is better.  Aim for the stars but be willing to settle for the moon.  Even an ordinary life is awesome if you are with people you love.

Okay, so what’s some good advice?

I'm only a high school senior about to graduate but here’s my advice for you (luckily it's a quote from three time Pulitzer prize winner Thomas L. Friedman:

“The world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know.”

As titans we need to go out and not only do well but do good in this world. We represent something bigger than ourselves. Be good. Do good.  

If you fell asleep during this whole thing and just barely woke up. Ultimately here is my advice: go get an education and do something amazing.

Once a titan always a titan.

Peace out senior year. We are on to bigger and better things.

-----------------

well. that's all for that.

bye highschool.

you'll only be missed ever so slightly

odd lack of words - a musical

I'm at a lack of words for my senior year.

but when your netflix says
WATCH IT AGAIN

to dear dumb diary, sharpay's fabulous adventure and the great British baking show

you know you have a problem.

Have you ever watched high school musical?

you know the east high WILDCATS

soaring flyin'

screaming on a roof in the rain with the hottest boy in school (personally chad was always cuter)

yeah. that's what i thought highschool would be.

olympus high is not the wildcats.

it's neverending pain of trying to graduate, 

getting up in the morning, 

and realizing that maybe

high school musical can relate to everything in my life at this moment

^^ this is me after realizing i have a million classes to finish

^^ me realizing that i can't fit into the clothes i wore freshman year

(also stress eating yikes)

^^ i got incredible grade senior year

this is me being a nerd

^ seeing how much homework i have.

(do i do it? no.)

^^ this is me thinking that my friends won't leave on missions and to other colleges

(speaking of which who decided it was a good idea to have highschool?

i'm never gonna see half these people ugh. im so sad.)

^^^^^^^^

FINALLY.

i hope this happens.

pray this happens.

please.

(pray for this too. i'm trying to get married freshman year at BYU provo)