BYU

The summer after graduation, was another period of transition.  The friends I had grown up with and loved for so many years would all be heading off to different colleges in the fall.  I realized it would never be the same and it made me sad.  However, I was also excited to start a new chapter of life at BYU. 

David returned from his mission the day after I graduated from high school.  We went to visit him twice at Camp Loll and visited West Yellowstone that summer where I first swam in the Fire Hole River.  

As a new adult, I started working for my dad as a medical transcriptionist and also as a receptionist at the clinic on Hill Airforce Base.  He worked there part time because they needed civilian doctors to cover for the Airforce doctors who were sent to the Gulf war.  Having previously served in the Navy, he was an obvious choice.  

During my free time I went to a lot of movies, hung out with friends (mostly Matt), played volleyball, walked all over the city when I couldn't use the car, and spent time babysitting Jessica.  I got to see the Beach Boys at Stadium of Fire and went with Brian Blamires and Mindy to see Les Miserables.  I also had the opportunity to speak in Stake Conference.  

Mid August I started packing up my room and my parents drove me down to BYU to check out the dorm situation, buy my books and explore campus.  On August 26, I loaded up the car, said my goodbyes and headed off to college on my own.  The first day was difficult.  I was sharing a room with my friend Julie from Layton High, which made it a little easier, but I was nervous and feeling a little sad and lonely.  I didn't sleep well that night but things improved quickly.  As a freshman, we arrived for freshman orientation a week before classes actually started.  We were assigned to a "Y" group which gave us the opportunity to meet lots of new friends.  In no time, it was a party.  Our group met up every day for games, campus tours, morningsides, firesides and dances.  On day 3 Mindy and Amber my mom, Jenny, David and Jessica all came to visit so I was feeling pretty good.  

Our first Sunday was pretty cool.  I loved being in a student ward.  It was fast Sunday and people, it seemed, were racing up to the pulpit to share testimony of Jesus Christ.  I shared mine in Relief Society.  Then we went to the ward of our "Y" group to listen to their meeting.  It was powerful.  That afternoon we went downstairs to the piano where Julie played and we sang for hours.  I loved it!  That night I went on a date to the Marriot Center to hear Elder Ballard speak.  When I got back, our friends were all at our dorm so we played some games.  Such a fun day!  A few days later, the Bishop called me as a family home evening coordinator and asked me to speak in Sacrament Meeting the next Sunday.  He didn't waste any time!

College classes turned out to be a lot more difficult than high school classes.  For example, in my religion class, I was required to read the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks, ugh.  First semester I took English, Biology, Spanish, Volleyball, Health., Student Development, and Book of Mormon.  I enjoyed being able to pick my schedule and when the sun was out, I didn't mind walking the campus.  

Aside from our new friends, David was also attending BYU, and would stop by occasionally.  There were other friends from Layton that would come by to visit too.  It was always nice to see them.  Sometimes we would all go dancing at "The Palace" on the weekends, which was a blast.  Jenny would drive down to dance with us sometimes.

One of my favorite things at BYU was the football games.  Our "Y" friend group got tickets together so it was always a blast.  It was a mix of football, cheering, dancing, singing, and flirting.  

Another one of my favorite things were our walks to the temple.  We lived so close to the Provo temple, just a 5 minute walk.  When I was feeling stressed, or just needed a pick me up, I would see if anyone wanted to go and we would go sit on the temple grounds.  Sometimes we would just talk, sometimes we would sing and sometimes we would pray together.  It was always peaceful.  

BYU was a remarkable educational experience.  It was beautiful to be around so many youth my age that were focused on Christ and trying to do what was right.  On Monday nights we would have family home evening with people in our hall (Felt Hall).  On Sunday nights we had ward prayer, and on other nights we would often have our own dorm room prayer.  We all became a family who looked out for each other.  

At BYU, I found it a little difficult to balance school and social.  My social life got a little out of control.  I had dates or phone calls or visits from guys all the time.  It started becoming a bit of a problem.  I was up late almost every night.  Getting up for classes was not easy most days.  I was still technically in a relationship with Matt Drake from Layton at first, but that came to an end pretty quickly.  He came to visit a few times, but there were just too many others guys that I wanted to get to know.   He asked me to go the Layton's Homecoming with him and we had a good time, but that was kind of our last date.  Although I was getting to know lots of boys, there were two that really grabbed my attention.  For several months I refused to commit to just one guy.  Eventually though, one rose to the top, his name was John.  

After I got home from Homecoming with Matt in Layton, I laid down on the couch to watch the BYU football game and fell asleep.  Later in the night, I woke up and felt a nice breeze on my face, so I switched couches to be closer to the breeze.  As I laid down, I jolted awake because the back door was wide open which was why there was a breeze in the house.  As I looked toward the door, a large man filled the doorframe and looked inside.  My heart started racing.  He took a step inside and looked around a little more and then went back outside.  I decided that I would quietly go upstairs to wake up my dad, but just as I started to stand up, the man walked back inside.  My body froze, but my brain was trying to process it.  Should I scream, should I run, should I grab a cue ball from the pool table and throw it at him?  I finally decided to just quietly say, "hello."  When I did, he took off running out the back, and I took off running upstairs to wake up my dad, who called the police.  They came and looked around and found a black beanie out back, but didn't find the guy.  I went back to bed, but was pretty shook up and hardly slept.  After that, my dad installed a motion sensor around the house.  It took years for me to be comfortable again alone at night.  Sometimes, I still get a little rattled.  

I got asked to BYU Homecoming by two guys.  I turned down one and said yes to John.  Julie, Lora and Emily got asked by 3 guys from our "Y" group, so we had a great time.  The dance was at the restaurant at the top of Bridal Veil falls.  It was a beautiful night and John was a very good dancer.  

"Y" group boys

My BYU roomies were so much fun!  We talked and laughed and sang a lot.  We would go "pussy footing" around campus spying on people, people watching, scaring people, playing in the puddles in the rain. We would make treats to take to people who needed a little cheering up.  We loved playing kissing rugby, other games or planning group dates.  We were having a blast!

This tree was outside my window.  
I loved to climb up
and sometimes read a book.

Eating spaghetti with our hands tied together
while sitting on the ground. (group date)

I often went home on weekends for one reason or another.  Usually, I went for a mission farewell, my guy friends were all leaving.  It seems I sang at a lot of those farewells.  I also went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course.  It was nice to see my family, but every time I left, Tara cried and it kinda broke my heart.  On Sundays, when I stayed in Provo, I would go to a local senior living center and sing hymns with the residents.  I absolutely loved it!

I don't remember my grades that first semester, but I do remember that they were not great!  My GPA definitely wasn't a 3.9.  Spring semester was even worse.  I made a huge mistake that semester.  I took a physics class.  On the first day the professor told us that we could choose how we wanted to be graded.  We could come to every class period, do the assignments, quizzes and take the mid-term and final and have our grade averaged.  We could take the mid-term and final and take the average.  Or we could just take the final and that would be our grade.  I thought the latter sounded the best.  I decided not to go to class at all and just study on my own.  Big mistake.  I put off studying until the night before the final and failed it, so I failed the class.  I learned my lesson.  A few years later, I retook the class at Weber State and got an A which removed that ugly E from my transcript.  

In spring, I took a different religion class and really liked it.  I also took Latin ballroom dance and a volunteer class, among other classes.  In the volunteer class I worked with special needs individuals in the swimming pool.  I was supposed to teach them to swim, but we mostly just played in the water.  

As my first 2 semesters were coming to an end, I still had no idea what I wanted to study, so I took the summer off to figure it out.  I never returned to BYU, but I have very fond memories of my time there.