This was an AWESOME year. Here's why:
-I went to Scotland to do an internship with the Scottish Parliament.
-I became the National American Miss Utah!
-My brother went on his mission and my good friend's mission is half over.
-I went on my second and third dates while attending BYU (yes!)
-I changed my major (International Relations --> Political Science)
-I have a new niece and nephew (and 2 more nephews on the way!)
-I went to the National American Miss National Pageant and won 2nd runner up Best Resume and 4th runner up Talent!
-I proposed to and then two weeks later met my new best friend.
-I started dating my best friend.
-I'm engaged to my best friend. :)
Happiness all around! Could it get any better than this?
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
A most ingenious paradox
Today in Relief Society, we were talking about baptisms for the dead. The instructor was talking about how because we do the proxy work for these people, we are essentially "saviors" and are progressing on our journey to become like Christ. But before we can be baptized for them, we must be baptized ourselves. An example given was on an airplane, being instructed to place the oxygen mask over your own face before helping a child. The moral of the story was that before we can help others we must help ourselves.
Anyway, I got to thinking that this is the paradox of the modern hero; the fact that they aren't perfect and have problems is what draws us to them. Usually there is some underlying issue that pushes the hero to become super and help the helpless. Usually the problem is something that the hero's love interest points out later in the plot because, as we all know, our lovers can see deeper into our souls than we prefer.
I think I've gotten off topic.
Take Batman for example. I believe he will be an adequate example because he doesn't have "super" powers. His parents were mugged and killed in front of him, and when the killer was released from jail, he made it his life's mission to track him down and stop others like him from ruining innocent people's lives. The instance of his parent's untimely death pushed him to become a savior of innocents, rather than an intrinsic desire to make the world a better place just for the sake of doing so.
Spiderman was driven to use his spidey powers for good because he let a criminal get away that ended up killing his beloved uncle. Ironman was essentially repenting of his sins as a weapons creator because his creations had become the seed of corruption in the hands of terrorists. The list goes on...
Granted, if there was no underlying background story, the hero would be boring. Whereas, we need to be "boring", having "saved" ourselves first through doing our own baptismal ordinances before we can help others with that option. There's a worthiness issue with covenants and ordinances that cannot simply be overlooked.
Anyway, I guess my point is this whole "help yourself before you help others" thing is the exact opposite of the modern hero. The reason heros help others is because they cannot help themselves.
Anyway, I got to thinking that this is the paradox of the modern hero; the fact that they aren't perfect and have problems is what draws us to them. Usually there is some underlying issue that pushes the hero to become super and help the helpless. Usually the problem is something that the hero's love interest points out later in the plot because, as we all know, our lovers can see deeper into our souls than we prefer.
I think I've gotten off topic.
Take Batman for example. I believe he will be an adequate example because he doesn't have "super" powers. His parents were mugged and killed in front of him, and when the killer was released from jail, he made it his life's mission to track him down and stop others like him from ruining innocent people's lives. The instance of his parent's untimely death pushed him to become a savior of innocents, rather than an intrinsic desire to make the world a better place just for the sake of doing so.
Spiderman was driven to use his spidey powers for good because he let a criminal get away that ended up killing his beloved uncle. Ironman was essentially repenting of his sins as a weapons creator because his creations had become the seed of corruption in the hands of terrorists. The list goes on...
Granted, if there was no underlying background story, the hero would be boring. Whereas, we need to be "boring", having "saved" ourselves first through doing our own baptismal ordinances before we can help others with that option. There's a worthiness issue with covenants and ordinances that cannot simply be overlooked.
Anyway, I guess my point is this whole "help yourself before you help others" thing is the exact opposite of the modern hero. The reason heros help others is because they cannot help themselves.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
the epic story
By popular demand, here is my side of the story, but for the other side, and my personal favorite, click here
It all started one Saturday. My mom and sister had come into town for a DUP conference in Salt Lake and were staying the night with me in Provo. I told them that The Giver was playing at BYU, but I had seen it the night previous night, so while my mom, sister, and best friend were at the show, I went to see HumorU.
I had never attended a HumorU show before; all I knew was it was stand up comedy and it looked as if they had a pretty good turnout the night before. I was all by myself (yes, I do this often) and found it to be quite funny. There was one act though that really got me laughing more so than the others. I enjoyed it a lot. You can probably guess who’s that was ;)
So after the show, being hyper from all the jokes and laughter, I ran over to my mom and started telling her about this set I enjoyed. I finally was like, “I’m going to ask him to marry me!” My rational brain said, “No, Katie. That is just too silly. You need to calm down.” But then I thought, “What would be the harm? I’m not even remotely dating anyone. And I can only get away with a fake marriage proposal at BYU. And I know I’ll regret it if I don’t.”
I ran (well, sort of) back to the table they had where you could write the boys of HumorU “nice notes” and comments about the show (The funniest ones would get put on t-shirts). So I grabbed a card and pencil and started writing, “Kyle Jepson, Will you—” I couldn’t do it. My rational brain had finally caught up with what I was doing and since it knew I couldn’t back down from what I had started, it conceded that I could put, “Will you go on a date with me?” or something to that effect. But my mother, who was tired of waiting for the HumorU show to get out and now was tired of waiting for me, said, “Don’t wimp out! Ask him to marry you!” I finished the card, and you can see a scanned copy of it here.
The next day, after church, of course, I checked my phone to see if he (or anyone for that matter) had called. There was a missed call from a number I didn’t recognize and a voice message! When we got back to my apartment, I put it on speakerphone for my mom, sister, and roommate to hear. Then, to the disappointment of all present, I went to the other room to call him back. We set a date to meet at Jamba Juice a week and a half later since it was the end of the semester and finals were upon us. I’ll admit I thought he set the date for so far in the future so that he could avoid me, which I was okay with since I expected him to be a jerk anyway.
But a week and a half later, he called me on Wednesday to make sure I hadn’t forgotten and to solidify the time for our meeting. I was excited, mostly because I enjoy meeting new people, even if they turn out to be jerks, and also I quite enjoy Jamba Juice.
I went to my French Final that morning, then killed time in the library before the encounter was to occur. I made sure to arrive a little late so I wouldn’t be the one waiting around for him. My excitement and nervousness grew with each step toward the Wilkinson Center. The sign for Jamba Juice came into view. I turned the corner.
“Katie!” a rather lanky boy called to me. He jumped out of his seat and gave me a huge hug. I don’t remember how I reacted, but I’m sure he does. We bought our drinks, sat down at a table in the Wilk, and proceeded to talk about everything. Following a discussion about countries, we moved to the large world map in the Kennedy Center. Before I knew it, almost 4 hours had passed! We parted ways so he could go to work, but it was definitely a reluctant goodbye.
Somehow, in those few hours and in the following week, we connected in a way that is very rare to me and has only happened once before. We’ll see how it all plays out. As for now, we are best friends :)
It all started one Saturday. My mom and sister had come into town for a DUP conference in Salt Lake and were staying the night with me in Provo. I told them that The Giver was playing at BYU, but I had seen it the night previous night, so while my mom, sister, and best friend were at the show, I went to see HumorU.
I had never attended a HumorU show before; all I knew was it was stand up comedy and it looked as if they had a pretty good turnout the night before. I was all by myself (yes, I do this often) and found it to be quite funny. There was one act though that really got me laughing more so than the others. I enjoyed it a lot. You can probably guess who’s that was ;)
So after the show, being hyper from all the jokes and laughter, I ran over to my mom and started telling her about this set I enjoyed. I finally was like, “I’m going to ask him to marry me!” My rational brain said, “No, Katie. That is just too silly. You need to calm down.” But then I thought, “What would be the harm? I’m not even remotely dating anyone. And I can only get away with a fake marriage proposal at BYU. And I know I’ll regret it if I don’t.”
I ran (well, sort of) back to the table they had where you could write the boys of HumorU “nice notes” and comments about the show (The funniest ones would get put on t-shirts). So I grabbed a card and pencil and started writing, “Kyle Jepson, Will you—” I couldn’t do it. My rational brain had finally caught up with what I was doing and since it knew I couldn’t back down from what I had started, it conceded that I could put, “Will you go on a date with me?” or something to that effect. But my mother, who was tired of waiting for the HumorU show to get out and now was tired of waiting for me, said, “Don’t wimp out! Ask him to marry you!” I finished the card, and you can see a scanned copy of it here.
The next day, after church, of course, I checked my phone to see if he (or anyone for that matter) had called. There was a missed call from a number I didn’t recognize and a voice message! When we got back to my apartment, I put it on speakerphone for my mom, sister, and roommate to hear. Then, to the disappointment of all present, I went to the other room to call him back. We set a date to meet at Jamba Juice a week and a half later since it was the end of the semester and finals were upon us. I’ll admit I thought he set the date for so far in the future so that he could avoid me, which I was okay with since I expected him to be a jerk anyway.
But a week and a half later, he called me on Wednesday to make sure I hadn’t forgotten and to solidify the time for our meeting. I was excited, mostly because I enjoy meeting new people, even if they turn out to be jerks, and also I quite enjoy Jamba Juice.
I went to my French Final that morning, then killed time in the library before the encounter was to occur. I made sure to arrive a little late so I wouldn’t be the one waiting around for him. My excitement and nervousness grew with each step toward the Wilkinson Center. The sign for Jamba Juice came into view. I turned the corner.
“Katie!” a rather lanky boy called to me. He jumped out of his seat and gave me a huge hug. I don’t remember how I reacted, but I’m sure he does. We bought our drinks, sat down at a table in the Wilk, and proceeded to talk about everything. Following a discussion about countries, we moved to the large world map in the Kennedy Center. Before I knew it, almost 4 hours had passed! We parted ways so he could go to work, but it was definitely a reluctant goodbye.
Somehow, in those few hours and in the following week, we connected in a way that is very rare to me and has only happened once before. We’ll see how it all plays out. As for now, we are best friends :)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
quick update
so i should probably mention this (especially with the convenient placement of my last post) but a few days after i wrote my post about miss provo, i got a phone call from national american miss. i had applied for miss california and was informed about 2 months ago that i was a runner up for the title. oh well...i knew that i had choked but i was happy nonetheless. anyway, back to the phone call. so the national pageant directer called me and basically said, "you're going to school in utah, right? do you want to be miss utah?" oh man! totally excited :D so for all the world to know (all the world = kati and my sisters)
I AM YOUR 2009-2010 NATIONAL AMERICAN MISS UTAH!!!
pictures will follow later as i haven't received my crown and banner yet. but that should be remedied by august. this is going to be a great year :)
I AM YOUR 2009-2010 NATIONAL AMERICAN MISS UTAH!!!
pictures will follow later as i haven't received my crown and banner yet. but that should be remedied by august. this is going to be a great year :)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
and the new miss provo is...
this evening i went to the miss provo scholarship pageant. luckily the crowning of miss provo wasn't as dramatic as the picture shown. actually it was quite anticlimacti. anyway, with notebook in hand, i intended to reimerse myself in the pageant light in preparation for the national american miss (namiss) national pageant in november. i brought my friend todd along with me and he was a good sport considering he thinks pageants are pointless and merely show off beauty without actually seeking out the truly talented. it makes perfect sense; those girls who are absolutely amazing go unnoticed because they would never dream to participate in a pageant.
but i digress, the point of my writing is to alert those few readers and just put it into words for myself pageantry in general. i'm really looking forward to november. i think i have what it takes to go far and that excites me. a few friends have told me that i don't need to do the pageant and the only reason i'm doing it is for the attention. this is kinda sorta part of it, but not completely. i have learned valuable speaking skills from doing namiss pageants that i couldn't have gotten elsewhere. the miss provo pageant seemed like it was more about one's composure and presence on stage rather than allowing the girls to tell the judges who they were. i am also glad namiss doesn't have an onstage question. yikes! i much prefer a personal introduction.
another difference i encountered as a member of the audience, the professionality of the pageant itself was not up to the standards i am used to dealing with, which could possibly just mean i have high standards. obnixious family members made it sound, and look, as if we were at a football game, not a beauty pageant. enthusiasm is fantastic but not at the expense of surrounding audience members, please.
all in all, it was a good experience. it reminded me that real girls do these pageants, so i should relax a bit. but i still have a lot of preparations to make. i got some notes to practice and sketches for potential dresses, although i'll probably just wear the ones i have. i have a lot of work to do once i get home: publicity as runner-up to miss california, aka miss sacramento as long as none of the other runners-up are from there, but mostly raising money for entry to nationals, a whopping $800 entry fee plus other competions.
oh dear, looks like i have my work cut out for me.
help!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
i don't get stressed very easily. well, i can say that now because i'm not stressed, but usually, i'm a pretty calm person. but even that is a little stretch of the truth. i enjoy being active and outgoing, social and busy, but when assignments pile up at school or i have a huge event to organize, i don't stress. ok, well, there's an exception to every rule. i guess i'm a "this too shall pass" kind of person.
last week, i had a huge paper due: an 18-20 page policy recommendation paper about nuclear power plants in scotland. i was worried about it, yes. and i honestly didn't have time to work on it. but even when i did, i made sure to find something else more important to do. i made flash cards for french class and probably gained about five pounds from eating so much. i just got really overwhelmed. i had no idea where to start, not enough time to do thorough research, and there were so many tangents i could have, and probably did, go off on. it was not that bad once i got started, and i could have gotten a lot more done if i had an extra few days or a week. but not too bad.
this post is not going the direction i intended at all...
my intention was to point out my innate ability to stay calm in a storm.
last week, i had a huge paper due: an 18-20 page policy recommendation paper about nuclear power plants in scotland. i was worried about it, yes. and i honestly didn't have time to work on it. but even when i did, i made sure to find something else more important to do. i made flash cards for french class and probably gained about five pounds from eating so much. i just got really overwhelmed. i had no idea where to start, not enough time to do thorough research, and there were so many tangents i could have, and probably did, go off on. it was not that bad once i got started, and i could have gotten a lot more done if i had an extra few days or a week. but not too bad.
this post is not going the direction i intended at all...
my intention was to point out my innate ability to stay calm in a storm.
Friday, May 8, 2009
french class
i really probably should update this more even though i know no one will read it. (except you katherine :) ) there is so much i want to talk about and have been thinking about. aka a certain boy, relativity of truth, the gospel, more about that certain boy, etc. i'm taking french right now and it's really hard. i mean, not REALLY hard but just difficult to understand and formulate sentences with vocabulary i don't know yet. tyler has been really good at helping me study but he's gone until next tuesday! and i have a composition due on monday and a midterm on wednesday and thursday! i don't have time for him to be gone. but it'll hopefully turn out all right. i have to make lots of flash cards so i can learn the vocab :\ i have to work on a lot of hw this weekend; mainly papers for my internship that are due on tuesday. yikes! hopefully my teacher gets back to me soon about that extension...
A'bientot!
A'bientot!
Friday, April 24, 2009
since when did the sun come out?
i don't like going outside. i mean, i like it once i'm out there but it's the getting out there that's the trouble. i don't know how i got this way. even when i was living in scotland where there are a million museums to see and parks to walk through and pictures to take, i sat in my room on many a saturday. probably because i would feel guilty going out and enjoying myself when i have tons of homework and packing and laundry and cleaning to do at home. a good day for me is going outside and doing absolutely, with my whole heart, nothing. oh dear, it looks like my homework is calling :\
i'll try to make room for some sit-on-the-porch-reading-a-book time. wish me luck!
i'll try to make room for some sit-on-the-porch-reading-a-book time. wish me luck!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
i love to dance
basically, dancing makes me happy. if i'm having a bad day or even a good one, i like to dance my feelings out. music drives my emotions and vice versa. when i hear a really good song, it makes me happy, so i want to dance it. today was a good dancing day because i was really balanced so if i was on a proper floor, i could probably do piorettes or fuettes for ages. i don't dance because i want to. i dance because i have to.
well i'm off to go salsa dancing at el barrio's. ta!
well i'm off to go salsa dancing at el barrio's. ta!
Monday, February 9, 2009
i think therefore i am
on our way home from a movie, we were talking about music and how different songs evoke certain memories and smells make you think of certain things. so that got me thinking (and this probably won't make sense at all unless you live inside my head so just try to keep up)
essentially the conclusion i came to was that these smells and sounds prove our human-ness through memories. sounds and smells are intangible. sounds could arguably be tangible because you can feel the force of sound waves but you can't hold a sound and is therefore intangible as far as i'm concerned. anyway, these intangibles are just floating around in the atmosphere and when they are picked up by our ears and noses, they affect us all differently. like a person might like a certain song because it has a good beat but then another person sitting right next to the first may like the song because it reminds them of warm summer afternoons and jumping on trampolines. like the smell of some sort of chili or something makes me feel sick because at my friend's house, i ate something that had this certain smell and it made me sick. but then i start thinking about my friend and all the times we spent together at her house and growing up together and all our sleep overs and long talks. to someone else it may just be chili but to me, it is my childhood.
and then it reminds me that we're all individuals with different lives and stories and backgrounds. how we're all connected and crossed paths for a reason. everyone has their circle of friends who love them for various reasons and when those circles collide we become one. when people die, their stories, their thoughts, their feelings die with them. they are more than just a number; they are human.
essentially the conclusion i came to was that these smells and sounds prove our human-ness through memories. sounds and smells are intangible. sounds could arguably be tangible because you can feel the force of sound waves but you can't hold a sound and is therefore intangible as far as i'm concerned. anyway, these intangibles are just floating around in the atmosphere and when they are picked up by our ears and noses, they affect us all differently. like a person might like a certain song because it has a good beat but then another person sitting right next to the first may like the song because it reminds them of warm summer afternoons and jumping on trampolines. like the smell of some sort of chili or something makes me feel sick because at my friend's house, i ate something that had this certain smell and it made me sick. but then i start thinking about my friend and all the times we spent together at her house and growing up together and all our sleep overs and long talks. to someone else it may just be chili but to me, it is my childhood.
and then it reminds me that we're all individuals with different lives and stories and backgrounds. how we're all connected and crossed paths for a reason. everyone has their circle of friends who love them for various reasons and when those circles collide we become one. when people die, their stories, their thoughts, their feelings die with them. they are more than just a number; they are human.
Friday, January 9, 2009
I love scotland!
So basically, i never want to leave scotland. i've been here only a week but it feels like 6 weeks have gone by. i love my internship and the hills and the buildings and oh....it's just all so breathtaking. here are just some of the pictures i've taken so far:
i believe i have found my true love <3
i believe i have found my true love <3
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