A Year in Review + College Acceptance

My motto for 2015. 

This year has been an interesting one! So, here is a quick review of what has happened over the past 12 months of my oh-so interesting life.

JANUARY: I started my second semester at MWCC, taking classes that were more relevant to my major.
FEBRUARY: I turned 17 and got asked to church prom, on the same night in which I had a surprise birthday party!
MARCH: I went to Michigan with my mom to visit my brother and sister-in-law.
APRIL: Prom month once again. Cherish and I got ready together which was really fun. Here are some pictures below.

prom 2k15

MAY: Finally finished my second semester of college/my junior year. I also ran my first 5k! I figured my next step would be a 10k, but so far I've never run further than 6.5 miles. And that was once. And then I took a two month long break on running. So, there's that. Cherish left which was sad, and I became an only child once again. But I am grateful for the internet and text messaging. And Snapchat.
JUNE: ??? Something happened.
JULY: We went to New Hampshire and I started my summer semester (two online classes). It was fun, as usual. My online classes were alright. It was a lot of work, but I learned some lessons on discipline. Youth Conference was good. July was also the one year anniversary of my blog!
AUGUST: In August I went to Maine with my mom. We had a lot of laughs and I saw some dolphins! I got my first sunburn... I finished my summer semester and managed to get a B+ in my Fitness & Wellness class, which is slightly embarrassing until you learn that we didn't just run around and lift weights. But, I didn't fail any classes and got A's and B's.
SEPTEMBER: I started my fourth semester at MWCC. I showed up late to my first class of the semester and vowed to be at least 15 minutes early from then on.
OCTOBER: What's funny is that I was wondering what happened in October, as I sit at the kitchen table in a completely new house. I clicked back on my blog and found my post titled "Moving On", in which I remembered we moved in October... And that was an adventure. I really enjoy our new house. I like my room, although smaller, and I love being closer to basically everything. I waste much less gas.
NOVEMBER: I gave a talk at the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. For Thanksgiving we went to my aunt's house. Everyone came home for the holidays. I saw baby Claire for the first time since she was 3 weeks old. It's amazing how babies grow so fast. Claire couldn't even hold up her head when I first met her!
DECEMBER: David came home from Brazil!! My mom also got us a gym membership so David and I have been doing that. It's been nice to have him home. We just came back from Virginia, visiting my dad's side of the family. We saw the White House, the Capital Building, and we drove by the Lincoln Memorial but didn't actually see Lincoln himself. We went through the Natural History Museum. We went to the leftovers of the Air and Space Museum, which was really cool. Finally, I woke up this morning to an email from the CES Admissions, which led me to a link that said I was accepted into Brigham Young University-Idaho! I know for most people BYU-I is a fallback school, but for me, this is the school I really want to go to. I know when I was younger, everyone wanted to go to BYU out in Provo, so I thought I did too. In reality, as I've gotten older, I've come to the realization that I actually don't really want to. When I tell people that I really want to go to BYU-I they're like, "Oh." It's like they think that's some kind of disappointment or something. Then when I explain that I plan to go in as a sociology major and apply to the Social Work program so I can finish my degree in about two and a half years, people go, "Oh! That's fantastic! Good for you!" They're reactions change completely. I've found that sometimes I tend to be kind of shy to tell people about my desire to go out to Idaho. But it's what I want. It's what I believe will make me happy. So for me, BYU-I is much more than a "cushion" or "fall back." It's not just nice to know that I have some place to go if I don't get into BYU Provo. It's a place that I've wanted to really go to for the past two plus years. It's where I can achieve my goals. So I'm excited to be going out to the Land of Potatoes (hopefully in the Fall).
Overall this past year has been pretty good. I've learned a lot about myself. I've come to put myself out there more and more. I'm proud of the progress I've made and am excited for the next year to be able to continue growing. Next year I'll be graduated, heading to Guatemala, and then out to college. Some very exciting things are coming in 2016! This year has had some challenges and I've wondered a lot about some things, but I've overcome a lot.
I started out with my past motto for this year, and now I'll end with my new one for 2016.

I have a lot of new experiences coming up, and this will be a good reminder to keep on trying and putting myself
out there. I don't need to be afraid of what people will think of me, or if I will fail at something. 

As usual, thanks for reading!
---Maggie