THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR AT SCHOOL
1. COOKING. I love the experience I am getting with cooking meals and baking all sorts of lovely desserts. I feel like I'm learning so much about cooking, food, grocery shopping, budgeting... there's just lots to do and learn when it comes to taking care of my own stomach. Really though, sometimes it's really fun to make cooking creations all by myself. It's fun looking at all the amazing recipes on Pinterest (although sometimes I torture myself... like on fast Sundays ;) ) and then making them myself. It's fun to decide what is worth spending money on and what foods really aren't as necessary. I think I understand a lot better now why my mom says "no" when we want certain treats from the grocery store... It's not always about buying everything that sounds good... this is money we're talking about! Also, as I make my own meals here, I'm so so so grateful that my mom has taught me how to eat right. I mean not eating fast food, mac and cheese, or ramen noodle... instead she's taught us how to cook basically from the moment we could talk. (And she taught us to cook GOOD things too :)
2. ROOMMATES. Sometimes it can be really fun living with just a couple girls my age.... It's so different from living in my crazy loud family household... but that different can be very good. There are no smelly guys to clean up after, the apartment is pretty relaxed and peaceful- no bickering siblings :), and it smells so good here. Two of my roommates have Scentsy candle-y things, and they smell SO GOOD. Spicy pumpkin scent is probably the greatest thing I could ever come home through after a day of classes. That always makes me feel happy. We also get yummy smells coming from the kitchen quite often, too, so it's altogether quite lovely! I also love all the crafts we do together as roommates.... how many other roommates make cardboard fireplaces and Christmas trees during their spare time? Probably very few. We put spider webs up for, Halloween, pumpkins and leaves on the fireplace mantel for fall, and made beautiful fall wreaths to show our gratitude for each other :) We started listening to Christmas music in September together. This is WONDERFUL. It's very often that you don't have at least one scrooge who won't let you listen until December... one month is NOT enough time to celebrate Christmas... After all, we should celebrate Christ's birth all year long. So shouldn't we be able to listen to Christmas music all year long? Just a thought... :)
3. MUSIC. Talking about Christmas music made me think of this one. I can't say how nice it is that Andrew isn't always turning off my music. I love him to death, but sometimes when he does this it almost kills me to death... and he ALWAYS does this. We have very different taste in music... haha we have a "truce" playlist that has songs that we can both tolerate. But when I'm listening to a song that I really love that gets turned off for one of those "tolerable" songs, they get a lot less tolerable. So yes, it's sometimes REALLY nice to be able to listen to my own music whenever I want to. No one turns it off or turns it down (not that I play it loud anyway).. but yes, it's sooo nice :)
4. CLASSES. I love my classes! I love all that I am learning here at school. It really amazes me that I spend half the time in actual classes than I did in high school, yet my classes are so much more productive and I learn so much more. I feel like it's so much easier for me to internalize what I'm learning now than it ever was in high school. I'm actually remembering what I learn. I feel like much of the time in high school I only learned enough to do well on tests and assignments, but didn't really internalize much of it at all. But now I'm just soaking it all in really well. I feel like I'm actually learning for real.. which is very good! :)
5. WALKING. I'll probably want to erase this once it starts to snow... but for now I love walking around campus so much! I feel like I was able to appreciate so much more this year the beauty of the autumn leaves and the crisp yet still pleasant autumn air. Fall has moved way up on my list after the last few months here at Snow. It is usually very pleasant when I'm going to my classes, and sometimes I wish I had a hammock so I could just sit out there and enjoy :) (really though... when I come back to Snow, the most important thing is that I can hang a hammock wherever I live ;) Walking to my classes is giving me such a greater appreciation for the beauty of the season around me! In high school I only spent a few moments running from the building to my car... I rarely took the time to walk in paths between orange and yellow-leafed trees. I'm definitely grateful for the beauty that walking has brought to my eyes this semester :)
6. TIDINESS. I am so much more tidy here than I ever was at home. I just care more about my own space and making sure it's nice. Maybe it's just that I have a smaller amount of space to myself, so I want to ensure it's tidy, maybe it's because my mom isn't here to clean... but I always put my clothes away and make my bed. I do my dishes, clean counters, and sweep floors. Everything is cleaner. Sometimes my house gets a little CRAZY with all the naught, rambunctious children running around and making messes... Sometimes they do close to nothing to help out resulting in an overwhelming amount of work for my mom and those who do help. So, more often than not things are often quite messy.... (those naughty children!). Here it's nice though because everyone is expected to clean up after themselves. We do our own dishes, or help each other out equally :) One of us doesn't have to slave away to clean up after everyone else... and sometimes that can be VERY nice. This sort of drives me crazy when I go home on weekends ;) I can't wait til my siblings move out and learn to clean up after themselves... :)
7. PINTEREST. I'm not sure if I should be grateful for this or disgusted by it... but Pinterest has become a new best friend since I've been at school. Really. It's kind of sad, but it's also the truth. Yes I may spend a few hours more time here than might be healthy... but it's always to pin things for a good cause! I get the best recipes to cook... I think everything I've made here has been somewhat based on Pinterest. I've also gotten all sorts of ideas for my future home, crafts, gifts, and EVERYTHING else. I have an interesting relationship with Pinterest... part of me hates wasting so much time while the other says that I'm only finding ideas for all sorts of things in the future... futer planning is good, right? :) Besides, what else would I have to keep me sane when I'm bored after finishing homework if I didn't have Pinterest? Yes I may have tripled my pins since being here... but it's for a good cause? :) Think what you want. Pinterest is in some ways a blessing of being here at school (or a blessing for me here at school... not sure which).
8. CLOTHES. This one's a little ridiculous and maybe a little vain sounding... but I'm running out of things to say since I've kind of blended some things together. Basically, I just feel like being at school has encouraged and allowed me to develop my style and creativity and outfits more... I haven't bought any clothes here! But I've come up with quite a few outfits (which I find cute :) that I never thought of until now.. despite having these clothing items for a year or a few... I guess that's just something I'm proud of :) I'm getting more creative! So really I don't think it's that vain to be grateful for the way my clothing has improved since being at school... :)
9. INSTITUTE. First off, these really aren't in any order of how grateful I am for them... because Institute would probably be at the top of the list if that were the case. (I'm just writing them down as I think of them :) I am in Mission Prep.. and I LOVE IT. So much. It's interesting to me that I sometimes come out of that class feeling like I've had an intensely deep philosophical discussion... my mind is just bursting with thought... and it's after talking about the gospel. I guess that's kind of a testimony to me of the truth of these things.. because I think that feeling of intense and awesome knowledge could only come from studying truth.. :)
10. TEACHING. I can't believe I'm saying this, because I wanted to die when the bishop called me to teach the Preach My Gospel Sunday School class... because I felt so inadequate as a teacher (and still kind of do). Today was my first day teaching the class... I fasted in order to better have the spirit with me because I was TERRIFIED that it would go TERRIBLY. I was really so worried, because sometimes my voice gets really shaky and I turn really red.... and I hate it. But I taught and was really just fine! I felt calm and I think I was able to teach what the spirit wanted me to teach. I know I have lots of learning to come and I could definitely improve, but I think that as I continue to do my best and follow the spirit that will happen. I think this is really going to help me to prepare for my mission (teaching and familiarizing with PMG. It's a scary thing, and I feel inadequate being called to teach others... especially when some are RETURNED missionaries.. sometimes I feel like they should be the ones teaching. But I guess I just have faith that Heavenly Father knew this is what I needed... and I'm grateful for that for whatever reason it may be.
Read next: 10 things to be grateful for at home :)
Read next: 10 things to be grateful for at home :)
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