the one about standing firm

i've been thinking a lot about this topic so here it is. i'm all for people having their own opinions, in fact i try to always allow myself time to consider all the possible outcomes and i try to make my own opinion of certain situations. i hate having someone else's to rely on. i want to know for myself. but something has gone terribly wrong if you or someone else has made their personal opinion, and is penalized for having that belief. leave them be. discussion is good, yes! but blowing up over the situation, is just pure selfishness and immaturity. everyone has been taught at a young age, stand up for what you believe. how can we/they do this when they get judged and bashed and ridiculed for it? if you don't agree, that's ok! life will go on. why throw temper-tantrums and make a scene when someone is just doing what they believe is right? people have little respect these days for each other, and because of that they believe they can do anything they want "it's their right" no, it's not. human decency is and will always be important. why wouldn't it?? everyone will disagree in some situations, that's good, that's how it should be. it helps people think and ponder about other options and ideas. but when someone doesn't think exactly how you do, and you treat them and their idea with disrespect, you and only you are in the wrong if you don't. i've always really looked up to people who knew what they believed and stood up for that belief. not thinking they were better than anyone else, and not thinking their opinion was better, just different. like i've said, i've been thinking a lot about this subject and i've come to the conclusion, we're all going to have different ideas and opinions in some areas, when you come to someone who does disagree with yours, you treat them with the upmost respect as they should to you. consider possibilities. don't be hypocritical. don't falter and waver. be strong. and please, always stand up for what you believe, no matter what the consequence may be.

"May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously..."

the one where i moved

it's true, i moved. i moved to college. apparently i'm a big girl now and have to go out and get a higher education and what not. juuuust kidding! it's all cool! so, like i've said before I am attending University of Nebraska-Lincoln (woot woot!) you may know us, the sea of red?

ya not gonna lie, it's pretty awesome being apart of that. we're known for our amazing crowd and all our dedicated fans. i love it. so anyway, we, and by we i mean my sister and i, moved in thursday afternoon. so it's about a three hour drive and we both had to bring our cars down, we didn't want to be on the phone the whole time with each other, yet we wanted to talk. soooooooo we brought walkie talkies! you know those things we all used in the 90's and early 2000s haha it was a blast. we just caravanned our way to Lincoln chatting it up through our little walkie talkies! so far it's great here. i love having my own place with sierra, we can be ourselves and not worry about having to impress another roommate or something. we're just on the edge of the city so it's pretty quiet still. we have free time (at least at the moment we do) to go to antique stores and asian markets and other random stuff. i've been driving a lot trying to prepare myself to drive alone in Lincoln, which i am not used to at all! although i'm loving it here so far, it was hard saying goodbye. i know my family will always be there for me, but it's sad knowing that, for now on, it's never gonna be the same as it was. i guess it's all a part of growing up but it's a little frightening as well as exciting. my best friends were hard to say goodbye to. it's gonna be different not being able to see them and laugh and cry and vent or anything else we decide to do...i'm a little worried it'll be hard to make close friendships here, and that's what i want above anything else i think. i'm gonna miss my little cousin, watching here cry as i left and hearing her beg for me to ask my "boss" if i could just not go to college was heartbreaking. i'm gonna miss that old town, being able to see all the stars at night, seeing the fields, watching the windmills, climbing 2 sets of stairs just to get to my room, gonna miss the old familiar faces around my small town. most of all i'll miss the simple things. i'm nervous and scared for what this school year will hold and yet, i'm so excited to start this new chapter in my life!

the one about my beautiful family

so we took family pictures the other day! they turned out awesome. we just used my camera, a rebel t3, and my sister's boyfriend took them and afterwards we edited them. i'm in shock of families who aren't close to one another. that would kill me. my siblings are my best friends. my parents are my role models and my strengths. they are so inspiring! i love it. i'm so blessed. i can't stress that enough! how lucky i am to have such an amazing strength in my life. my parents taught us at a young age how important our relationship with each other would be. at first we didn't understand, "our siblings would be our best friends" 5+ years ago i could've swore my siblings were my siblings, not my closest friends. but they truly are now. we enjoy being with each other, we help each other, we give each other advice, and we tease each other. we have a great time. ok so my sister is an awesome writer (her blog is here), journalism is her major and she writes for a local newspaper. because she can word things so much better than i can i just chose to pull a clipping of an article she wrote and let her explain this topic a little better. so give it a read.
p.s. i am the little sister she is referring to :)

". . .These parents knew the importance of family, the importance of sibling unity. One wouldn’t think that sharing a room would make a big difference but, I guarantee, it does.

Before I moved into my first apartment, I’d never once had my own room. I’d never even had my own bed. For as long as I can remember I have shared one with my younger sister and I have loved it. Allow me to correct that. I have usually loved it but, being human, there were times when I was younger, perhaps in elementary or junior high, when I wanted my own room. There was a point at which I moved down into the basement…for five minutes. Most of the time, however, having my sister as my roommate was wonderful. There is something about whispering late into the night that builds a relationship. There is something about laughing and crying and supporting one another in the loneliest hours that creates a dimension, an added love for that person. There’s something about learning to share everything that you own whether you want to or not. Something about learning how to be less spiteful and more forgiving. Something about learning to compromise in order to improve your living situation that forces you to grow as a person. There’s something about having less that somehow offers more.

In a world where most have their own bedroom, their own bathroom, their own computer, it’s refreshing to share. It’s gratifying to have a friendship that has been built, not on gossip or even slumber parties, but on learning to live with one another and learning to love it.

That’s why, now that we are both going to college and have the chance to live apart, we are choosing to live together. We are, once again, sharing a bedroom. Not because we have to but because we want to, because we missed it.  

Those young parents have something figured out, something that my own parents figured out long ago.  Sharing a room is going to build that sisterhood in a way nothing else ever could. Having too many children in a house far too small for everyone to have their own bedroom or bathroom, well that was perhaps one of the greatest things that my parents ever did for me." 

and now a couple of the pictures to top it off. :)

the one about Girls Camp

so last week i went to Girls Camp.
and i love girls camp. it's probably my favorite camp ever.
it's not only fun but it's also so very spiritual. 
this year i was a camp leader because i was too old to be a YCL,
luckily my mom is 1st councilor in the Stake Young Womens Program so i easily was able to go.
I was so grateful to be over the 1st years, 
they are all so loving and it's just great to hear their growing young testimonies 
something you should know, I'm kinda a touchy-feely-kind-of-person 
so as we were walking back to camp, i was walking next to a girl who had scoliosis
i gently just reached over and grabbed her hand and kept walking, 
i never would have known how much that had meant to her 
but during testimony meeting she said at that moment she was feeling very homesick 
and almsot in tears, but when i held her hand i made her think of her mother and she felt at home
she made me cry.
anyway, camp was awesome and that's why i didn't write at all so forgive me 
but Girls Camp was definitely worth it.
i'm so blessed