“Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never again. There is a better way.”- Og Mandino

So I absolutely adore the above quote. As you will see later on this post, I have a crush on this guy's life philosophy on trying to be happy in your life. My whole goal this semester was to find happiness and I would say I was pretty successful. What was my formula of success? Balance! Well that, and reading MANY books including Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project," Og Mandino's "Great Salesman in the World," and Brandon Hill's "Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude." Because I learn best from reading, I read multiple books on the subject but these were the ones that stuck out the most! (As well as several conference talks by the prophet and Uchtdorf!) We run around in our lives today complaining about how our lives are not the ones we would have picked for ourselves. Notice the 'we' in the previous statement. Although I have become the happiest I have ever been, I still have my bad days, my mistakes, and my disappointments.

Today was my last day of class for my sophomore year of college. Does anyone else freak out when they read that sentence? How could two whole years escape my notice? There are so many things I still have to do: eat pasta in Italy, actually go on a date, see the Louvre, learn to speak Italian, go to law school. If time escapes me this easily, how I am ever going to get all this in??? Anyways, now onto some highlights on how I have been spending this semester:

• Easter. We'll start there because it was a fantastic day! We went to church, had several great talks that I very much enjoyed and then we came home and dyed eggs. And then I proceeded to down almost a whole bag a Starburst jelly beans because they were my favorite and I got a little home sick. After this binge, we decided to go all out on egg food meaning we made both deviled eggs AND egg salad. Which we ate. So yeah, we were on egg overload.
• Conference. MAN OH MAN! I NEEDED this conference. Especially Holland's talk because I was literally complaining to my mom the day before and asking her why other people got things they worked for and I didn't. Holland's answer to this was basically as follows: Kelsey you are a freaking idiot who should be more grateful for everything you have in this life. What he actually said: "We are not diminished when someone else is added upon." ZING. Straight to my heart. This was probably my favorite conference because of all the specificity that was going on. 
• Festival of Colors! So I blogged about this last year, but Festival of Colors (aka Holli) is an Indian holiday where they basically throw chalk at each other. I feel pretty bad because I actually don't know why it's celebrated other than to welcome spring. Anyways, we went again this year and it was a blast!
• Danny! Danny came to Provo to visit during Spring Break and so I got to see him for about an hour! It was super great to see him again and catch up. Michal, Madison and I had lunch which means *most* of my best friends were finally in one setting. Love that dude!
• Yesterday I finished the Doctrine and Covenants! Man, I LOVE that book. My goal was to read the Book of Mormon once every semester. However, I completed this WAY before finals so I decided to also read the Doctrine and Covenants. Let me just tell you again that I LOVE that book. Especially section 122. 
• The temple. So Madison, Mitch and I have gotten up at 5:15 every Tuesday for around the part 6 weeks to go to the temple. What a rewarding experience! Not only did my days go better, I was participating in an act of service that people could not do for themselves. The temple workers are even starting to recognize us now. Anyways, I LOVE going to the temple because it leaves me with such a reassuring feeling!
• Bill Marriott. As in president of Marriott hotels. Yeah, he came and did a forum here on campus. Because I work in the Marriott school, named after him I believe, we threw him a surprise 80th birthday party. (His birthday party was earlier that week). It was great! We got free t-shirts and cookies! Just another one of those things that doesn't happen on most campuses!
• Pinnacle of my existence... So one day in Spanish, I was talking about my plan to marry President Uchtdorf's grandson and this girl named Kari, who is from Germany, says that she knows him! So of course I told her to HOOK ME UP! She said she would if she could figure out a not creepy way to do so. The next day she came in and told me she was having a birthday party, which is actually today, and that she had invited him and I should come. Bummer news though because tonight is our ward's closing social. So there goes that opportunity. Good thing I have excellent creeping skills and can therefore 'bump' into him later on! Also, as a beautiful side note of this, my Spanish teacher decided to call me Senora Uchtdorf. So to sum up, it ended up still being positive!
• Julie B. Beck came and did a fireside for just our stake. Can I just say she is THE woman? Oh my goodness the things I learned from her were incredible but the favorite thing she stated was that "winners and losers are not a part of the Gospel plan. We are all Heavenly Father's children and should not be comparing ourselves to others." Needless to say, she was incredible and I am sad to see her released. 

Now onto some great pictures:

My roommate Sam found this and I was crying because I was laughing so hard!

Me, Marisa, and Lindsey decorating eggs!

Marcos, Madison and Mitch!

Me and John Sherman, the egg! It's tradition still!

Madison and I at Chipotle!

Me, Madison and Sara at the original Chipotle during Christmas break. 

Sensing a theme? This is all of us at Chipotle! 

The group pre-Festival of Colors!

The group AFTER! So much fun! :)

Madison and I!

Marisa and I!

Michal, me, Linds and Madison! 

So I can't rotate this... But it's Linds and I!

Bill Marriot's 80th birthday party!

Michal, Me, Danny and Madison at lunch! :)

Now  to end, I just want to share a few things I learned this past year:

1. Sometimes, life is not fair and we do not get things we want. I love this quote by Og Mandino: "I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the starts." I have tried to adopt this positive attitude for this entire semester, and it has worked! Always, always, always look for the good.
2. Count your blessings. Things could always be worse. Or as Og Mandino states, “Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.” 
3. Laugh at yourself. I learned to do this a long time ago because I obviously really love to laugh but this quote was a great reminder: “Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat... Never take yourself too seriously.”
4. Mistakes and 'failures' are a part of life but you don't have to let that get you down. This past year I have had my share of what the world would look upon as failures. However, each of these have made me into the person I am today and I am so thankful for every moment I have had in my life this past year because it has made me a stronger person. “Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come." This quote is literally my new mantra!
5. Do the best best you can with what you have and give it all you got. Be there for others and give them the same respect.There were several times in this past semester where I honestly just wanted to drop out due to all of the pressures. However I have come to realize that it is in these moments when we grow the most and Heavenly Father helps us the most. Og Mandino expresses it more elegantly: “Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.”
6. Serve others. I had this one week a couple of weeks ago where I wanted to do at least one act of service for every one I knew. I did not actually accomplish this, but it was wonderful. I have always love the phrase, "Lift where you stand," because it makes me feel like I can make the world a better place exactly where I am. Like Og Mandino states,“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” 
7. Seek out the triumph in every adversity. The reason my happiness has increased is because of this. My happiness has largely increased because I changed my perspective on life itself. Instead of focusing on every little detail that was going wrong in my life, I tried, attempted and often times failed, to notice all the positive things. To make this more readily applicable in my life, I have decided to start a "Tender Mercies" journal where I write in one amazing thing that happened to me today. Og Mandino excellently asserts (and yes, I know this is a lot of quotes but I AM an English major here people!) “Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment. Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.” 

Anyways, I am so thankful for the newfound happiness that came from balancing my physical body (work outs anyone?), my spiritual health and my educational pursuits. I am LOVING life. I hope that this summer, even though I am not going home, will be just as full of growth as this last semester was. LOVE YOU ALL!