These Next Twenty Years

September 29, 2011 is my 20th birthday... I don't even know what to say to this! How did it come so fast?!? I am really that old?!? I have one week left as a teenager and I'm freaking out because I haven't fully completed my "Teenager Bucket List". I'm not going to share that list with the whole blogging community but instead I've listed my top 19 favorite things I did during my teenage years, in honor of my last week as a 19 year old:

1) Fell in love
2) Had my first kiss
3) Got my Drivers License
4) Graduated High School
5) Became an EMT-B
6) Helped deliver 2 babies
7) Went on my first date
8) Went to Prom
9) Started college
10) Traveled to Japan and Hawaii
11) Had my first boyfriend
12) Went skinny-dipping (shocking, I know!)
13) Got my Young Women's Medallion
14) Went snowboarding for the first time
15) Got my first cell phone
16) Made a Facebook
17) Made my first sandcastle
18) Took a ride in a submarine
19) Realized you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl


I guess it's really not that big of a deal turning twenty, but I feel as though I am saying a final goodbye to my wonderful childhood and greeting my new Adult Life. Of course there is so much to look forward to and I know this is only the beginning of my bright future, but I will always embrace my teenage years and all that time I spent with my family and closest friends in the most wonderful place on the planet: HOME. So in honor of my 20th birthday next Thursday, I've made a list of 20 things I want to do in the next 20 years:

1) Graduate from BYU
2) Go on a mission
3) Fall in love, again
4) Get married
5) Get a PhD
6) Have kids! Lots of kids!
7) Make a medical discovery
8) Live in Texas
9) Travel to Australia/New Zealand
10) Learn to play the piano
11) Have medical profession
12) Complete P90x
13) Go to Yellowstone
14) Attend a Masquerade Ball
15) Go on a cruise
16) Learn to cook
17) Train a puppy
18) Own a house
19) Buy a John Deere tractor
20) Conquer the World! (ok kinda a stretch haha)

These next twenty years will be the best years of my life... :)

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

Well I'm back at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah studying my brains out. Majority of my friends attend a college or university where drinking, smoking, drugs and sex seem to be the only courses they get an A+ in. As for me, I'm not doing any of that. Oh, quite the contrary. Not only am I being a "good" college student who actually shows up to class sober, I'm currently taking Molecular Biology, a Molecular Biology 3-hour lab, Physics, a Physics 3-hour lab, 5+ hours of mentored research each week in a worldwide PhageHunters program, a New Testament religion class and a Music 101 class as my "blow-off" course. No Humanities or Philosophy for me. I'm pretty much the nerd you picture in the white lab coat with the HUGE goggles on getting super excited about finding green furry bacteria in a petri-dish... Yep, that's me and my college experience.

I'm going to be completely honest here- sometimes I wish more than anything I could have a "regular" college experience. It seems so easy and carefree and they still manage to come out at the end OK with a diploma. But here's the difference between me and them: I KNOW who I am, I KNOW where I'm going and I KNOW how to get there. I know my WORTH and what they are doing is not worth my time, energy or money. Believe it or not I still have fun in Provo Utah. In fact just this morning I hiked up a 6,000 ft mountain to the Y. Cool picture huh? :)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can be my own kind of Beautiful, physically and spiritually, no matter what's going on around me. I might not beautiful or popular to the world, but I like who I am and I can't wait to see the girl I'm going to be after all this hard work in a few years.