"In all things it is better to hope than despair."- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I absolutely love this quote. It's been a bit rough going on so many levels these past few weeks, but it has also been a very happy time as well. It reminds me of a favorite quote by President Hinckley: 

"Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Well, today especially, I am thankful for my '"beautiful vistas." One thing that has always intrigued me is the idea of opposites and how they are necessary. One of the creepiest parts of the Dark Knight Rises is when Bain asserts: "I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope." This also obviously shows up in scripture as well, but it's easier to explain using movies most of the time! :) While I was hiking Timp (which will be explained later), I realized I had two choices: sit and cry/sleep or keep going. I will be completely frank and tell you that most of my 11 hour hiked involved the former, but I did make it. I used the 'crayon' of despair and learned how hard this was and then, only then, did I have full joy (which was only about ten minutes because that's how long we were on the summit). I re-learned a valuable lesson through all my experiences this past week: I have a choice on how to react to problems. No one gets to tell me how to feel or what to do, but I am hoping that in the future, I will choose the more positive route. I can select my thoughts, and by extension, my attitude about things I experience. I fully learned the importance of experiencing both hope and despair. Now let's get onto what I did these past few (BUSY) weeks: 

• Reunion with Lindsey. Because I was in DC for Winter and Lindsey was in Thailand for Summer, I had not seen her for NINE whole months. So Marisa and I drove up to Kayesville to pick her up. We even made this cute little sign welcoming her home. Although we originally knocked on the wrong house, we were finally reunited and it felt so good! I have missed her so much while she was being a boss in Thailand. 
• The White House. No, I am not making a presidential bid! :) We moved into a new apartment called Single Tree and it is super nice minus the green hotel carpet. Marisa and I share a room, but Lindsey has a private room that looks like another "wing" of the apartment. It spiraled down to the "West" wing because it is actually on the west side of the apartment. So if you're in Provo, make sure to stop by the White House! :) This has actually been my nicest (and cheapest, crazy enough) apartment and I love it a lot!
• Climbing Mt. Timp. This little adventure begins Saturday before Labor day whereupon Lindsey invites me to go hiking with her and some friends. I find out that they're hiking Mt. Timpanogos (an 11,000+ mountain) and that they will be starting at midnight so they can summit before the sunrise so they can watch it. Although VERY leery, I agreed to hike because I thought to myself, "Hey this is my last year here and when will I ever have the opportunity to do this?" We bought these cute little headlights, packed tons of water and snacks (keep in mind that we had just fasted for nearly 24 hours because this was Sunday night) and went on our merry way. The first two hours were fun because I didn't know anyone so we shared life stories. About three hours into the the hike, I felt really nauseous because I was getting altitude sickness. Some of the group stayed back with me where we hiked really slowly. After about another hour, it started snowing and I finally threw up while some random guy I had just met rubbed my back and held my hair. So yeah, we can add that to my list of humiliating experiences. After I got sick, I REALLY wanted to just stop and take a nap because at this point, it's snowing, I'm dehydrated, it's three in the morning and I just threw up!!! One of the guys that stayed behind was a very recent RM and had that "can do" attitude that made me want to die. So basically, he didn't let me quit, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. I've only ever pulled one all-nighter and I get super emotional/grumpy when I'm tired, which added to this whole thing. So we listened to Adele and Katy Perry, I took ten minute naps in the middle of rocks and generally just took about 4x the amount of time it should have taken to hike Timp. To be honest, the night is kind of a blur. We finally summitted and I genuinely cried because I was so happy to have succeeded. But that was quickly replaced with despair because I made it to the top and there was only clouds, so we didn't even get to see a view. We stayed on top for about 10 minutes, then made our 4 1/2 hour journey back down the mountain. I'm going to be honest and say that everyone was grumpy and tired at this point. No one talked and the whole time I kept thinking to myself, "WHAT THE HECK DID I GET MYSELF INTO?" Seriously. It was not my favorite experience. At one,dramatic, point in the early morning I declare Scarlett-style, "As God is my witness, I will never hike again." I had never been more happy to see real civilization in my life. This whole experience taught me a few important lessons:

1. Never EVER EVER (times infinity) should you ever decide to yolo hiking a super steep mountain in the middle of the night after Fast Sunday. LIKE EVER.
2. I am so thankful that I was not born during the pioneer period. I would not have even made it across the Mississippi. This may sound like I am kidding, but afterwards, I genuinely prayed and gave thanks for the fact that I was not born in that time period because I cannot even imagine their pain. 
3. Sometimes, things are hard and you don't really get a noticeable reward. Usually I hate hiking but I always go because of the view. This time, I didn't get the view until much later when I was even more exhausted. I feel like that's very indicative of life.  Sometimes you work really really hard and you don't seem to get a reward at all, or it comes much later. In my case, I think my reward was that even in awful circumstances and positive friends, I can make it to the top of any mountain. (Also a HUGE shout-out to Lindsey for sticking with me when I felt like I was dying). Which brings me to...
4. I have a deeper appreciation for the talk "Mountains to Climb" by President Eyring. One of the reasons I decided to do this was because I knew if I could do this, I could survive emotional and physical trials coming my way. The good news that in the mountain of life, we have a constant buddy, our Savior, to help us through. I am so thankful for that. 
5. There are beautiful vistas like President Hinckley mentioned. When the clouds finally cleared, the view was breathtaking. I forgot (for about thirty seconds!) how much I hurt and how tired I was because the view was so gorgeous. I knew I had done something difficult and that I came out stronger. Anyways, while this adventure was not my finest moment, I am still happy I had the opportunity to climb Timp. 

• Classes. I AM A SENIOR IN COLLEGE. How the heck did that happen? As such, I am taking some pretty rocking classes: my capstone class on memoirs, Shakespeare and Brit Lit as well as my FINAL Spanish class. While I do not enjoy all the (arrogant) people in many of these classes, I genuinely love the content and my professors. It's going to be a good semester. It's only been a week and a day, but I feel like I've already been in class for a month. I am definitely getting senioritis even if I DO love my classes! :) 
• MADISON IS ENGAGED. Yep, one of my best friend's is getting married January 3 and I have the privilege of being a bridesmaid! Pretty pumped for round three of weddings! 
• Model UN. I am registered for this class and it is by far my favorite! It's a steep learning curve, but I am already loving it. I get to represent Germany, so I will know a lot about Germany and their international policies by the end of the semester. If I do well enough this semester, I'll participate in the conference in New York, which would be SUPER SWEET and a superb way to end my time here at BYU. So let's hope that happens! It is also going to teach me valuable skills like public speaking and diplomacy, both of which will help me in my grad school plans/career. 
• State Department. A woman who works for the State Department as a FSO (Foreign Service Officer) visited our UN class last week She is currently stationed in Columbia, but has been in Peru, Jamaica and is going to AFGHANISTAN in a few months. She's Mormon, married and has two kids, so basically like my dream woman, right? Well lucky for me, she stayed after and I talked to her. I ended up talking to her for about a half hour and she gave me a ton of valuable information which I will be eternally grateful for. This was definitely a divine intervention! 
• Titanic movie night. Lindsey and I have a love for Titanic. Hers is an ironic love and mine is that embarrassing unadulterated kind of love. I LOVE love. Anyways, I printed out boarding passes, we drew 'water' and the boat itself on the window and we ate. We made these pinwheels with turkey and tortillas, which was the college version of one of the courses they ate the last night. We also had pizza, pie and truffles, so we did party like we were first class. After many technical difficulties, we finally watched finished midnight with a finale of Kelsey singing "My Heart Will Go On." It was great and so much fun that we've decided to do more themed movie nights. Also did I mention that I love Titanic? Because I do! :) 
• Lindsey's birthday. Monday was Lindsey's 22nd birthday so we went to grab some Thai food and tell her why we loved her. We also bought her a gigant cupcake icecream cake which we all just ate straight out of the box (#noregrets) while listening to "22" by Taylor. So it was pretty awesome if I say so myself!
• Non-profit management. A girl in my new ward introduced herself and indicated that she was minoring in non-profit management. I instantly freaked out and was over-joyed and stayed that way... until I looked up the requirements, which are super focused on finances and accounting and not necessarily running an organization. So this is probably not going to happen, but I may decide differently in the future because I want Boss Women Unite to be a thing! 
• DC Reunion. Last Saturday morning I gathered at Tracy's for some delicious pumpkin french toast and a reunion with all my DC people. We shared what we did over the summer and it was so good to be with the people who knew me when I was my best self. They witnessed a change in who I was and it was so good to be back in an environment where everyone was kind of in the same situation. It was very refreshing and just made me miss DC all that much more.
• Meeting Sheri Dew. Yep, that happened. Every year Sheri Dew speaks to our MBA students for orientation and every year I am either too exhausted or scared to go. But this time, I had an in: my co-worker Lincoln's mom is friends with her! So I went and got to meet her. She is incredible. She asked me what my life story was and after I gave a brief explanation, she asked me what my experience in DC taught me. It was way intimidating, but so flippin' cool! She gave an excellent lecture about being a leader and I took a bunch of notes so I can incorporate them into Boss Women Unite. I am so happy that I got to meet her finally! I just want to be her!
• Plans for next year. I've been looking into doing a volunteer program through AmeriCorps Vista. Its so exciting that in less than 8 months, I can move wherever I want. I can move overseas, learn another language, basically be free of Provo forever! I can't remember if I've explained it here, but basically you volunteer for a non-profit for a year and at the end, they give you a large scholarship to help finance either grad school or pay off your undergrad students loans. I've really been looking into moving somewhere I've never been and I think I've narrowed it down to North or South Carolina. Why? Because it's super pretty and seems very calm but it's still back east. Also, it's where every single one of Nicholas Sparks' books/movies have been set and/or filmed. (Yes, that is one of the reasons I want to go there, so don't judge me!) So I'll keep you posted on my next adventures! 

Now onto some photographic evidence of said adventures:

This is Lindsey and I ON TOP OF MT. TIMP. Yes I made it to the summit!

Titanic movie night!

Sheri Dew and I!

Our Washington Seminar reunion!

From the hike to Timp.

It was (maybe) worth the hike. 

Love this girl to the moon and back!

Reunion time! We hadn't all been together in NINE months!

So that's my life. It's exciting, stressful, depressing and exhilarating. (Or as Taylor Swift would say, "I"m happy free confused and lonely at the same time"). I've also been obsessed with Celine's new song that you NEED to listen to because it is fantastic: