Thailand.

I am going to be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints starting in January. I will be serving for 18 months and couldn't be happier. For those of you who aren't familiar with the mission process, I filled out paperwork with my personal information and had a few interviews. Everything was mailed to the church headquarters and a few weeks later, I received a letter in the mail with my assignment. The church sends missionaries all over the world and I have been assigned to serve in Bangkok, Thailand.

18 months is a long time for a college student to spend not doing college. 18 months is a long time for anyone to spend away from home. My mother is freaking out. But serving a mission has become the most important thing in the world to me.

A few years ago, I came to a point in my life where I needed to define what I believed the world to be and what the role of humanity is within it, more specifically what my role is within it.  I couldn't coast anymore. I have come to the realization that taking the time to identify what you believe truth to be can bring so much significance to your life. With time and patience, along with careful study, I continue to feel intellectually expanded little by little. While I am painfully aware of how much I don't know, here is my truth:

I believe in God. I believe in His son, Jesus Christ. I believe that people matter. We are all reflections of divinity.

If I really take my beliefs seriously, how could I deny an opportunity such as this? What could be more important?  

A Letter to Men.

Dear Men,

I've seen too many of you wearing skinny jeans on campus this week. Too many. Now, I'm not opposed to the occasional hipster but this is just too much. Also, take off that beanie. It's not even cold outside. In fact, it's 80 degrees. All you need is a nice, yet casual button-down shirt (if it says "Hollister" across the front, throw it out with the rest of your eighth grade mementos, please) and a good pair of Gap jeans. Add a reasonable amount of cologne from Calvin Klein and should we ever meet in an elevator, I will probably start making out with you. 

Just some words of advice. Don't take it personally and if you do take it personally you're probably just in a bad mood because your pants are way too tight.  

A Message in a Bottle

Blogger got a makeover and I like it. 

Sometimes I have really strong experiences. I feel something profound and I want to keep the feeling. I want to take my big feeling and put it in a little jar and label it "BIG FEELINGS IN A LITTLE JAR" and whenever I need some sort of profundity, I can pull it out of my jar and remember what I felt. Because it's easy to forget feelings. Because life just seems to flow better when there are big things being felt. A degree is more earnestly sought when you feel the ambition that will get you there. I would imagine that marriage probably seems easier in those moments when you feel crazy in love with someone. Even really painful things help me to abandon any sort of illusion that I've manage to build up around me and see things for what they really are, ultimately helping me move forward.   

I write things in a notebook. It's my little jar of labeled emotions, a message in a bottle, if you will. "On this day, I felt this and it was awesome."  "On this day, I felt this and it sucked." "On this day, I choked on a flatbread crisp and it was awkward." It's kind of like a journal, but not exactly. I write some weird crap in there. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that these big feelings are outliers. Most days, my emotions extend from my mild happiness that my wake-up alarm is the Lion King theme song to my annoyance when people file their nails in class. There is something about that scratchy sound that drives me up a wall. I'm now losing a sense of where I was going with this....but it's 3:30 in the morning so that can only be expected.  Write down profound things? Remember your feelings? Don't eat flatbread crisps? 

Something like that.