The Plan of Happiness

I had this plan set out for the next 10 years of my life:

Go to college with a major in Teaching English as a second language with a minor in Chinese

Graduate in three years

Serve a mission

Get married

Teach English in China

Return home to have a family

Not a bad plan, huh? I thought it was great. Well, then I tried to check the first thing off the list. (It's never a good sign if the first thing doesn't go right.) I signed up for Chinese 301 and to sum up how that turned out, it kicked my butt. (That's a story for another day.) At the same time that was happening, I got the opportunity to become a vocal major. The part I struggled with was that there was a performing class at the exact same time as my Chinese class. So what do I choose? It has always been a choice between Chinese and music. My two favorite things! I was really struggling with this. Well after putting a lot of thought and prayer into it and talking to my family (that always helps), I decided to hold off on the Chinese. I felt good about it and was put into the performing class. This was an audition-only class with just 16 people in it, so I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. Chinese can wait.
The next day it hit me.
For four years I have had this plan. I never ever intended on dropping Chinese. But that class would have required so much from me, I probably wouldn't have passed it. I was supposed to stick to the plan and keep the Chinese. But the music made me so happy. After a long talk with Dallin, he taught me it was okay through a simple concept. The Plan of Happiness, as he loves to refer to it.
We have been given this plan so that we can be happy. Not just after death, but also on Earth. We have all been given talents so that we can fulfill the Plan of Happiness. My talent, in this case, being music. It runs through my blood. In order for me to be happy, I have to go off my silly plan that I made in high school and remember why I was given the talent of singing. It's not worth it in the end to kill myself over a degree and end up stressed beyond belief without exercising the talent that makes me most happy.
Dallin is so wise :)
So now, I am a vocal performance major and I will also get my teaching degree. I am not giving up on Chinese in any way at all, just simply putting it on hold until the time is right. Everything happens for a reason.

saturday is a very special day!

I love doing things for people. Especially the people I love. And today I got to spend the whole day doing things for Dallin. It was his birthday! Birthdays are the best for this kind of thing because it gives me an excuse to go all out and make everything about him! I began by providing him breakfast:

He ate the entire box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch all in one sitting! That boy can eat! 

Then we spent the rest of the day on the beach. I slept and got sunburned (even though it was cloudy) while Dallin used a tiny shovel to build huge holes in the sand.

To show how deep that hole actually was...

To even better show how deep that hole was!

Time for round two!

After digging holes for sometime, I looked over and noticed Dallin had inspired a young islander.

After the beach we cleaned up and ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It wasn't too shabby. Dallin got Hot and Sour soup that looked right, but tasted like a Mexican dish. Kind of impressive for a Chinese cook to get those flavors out of such oriental foods...

After dinner we had the best dessert ever! We went right next door and ate at Angel's Shaved Ice. Oh man was it good. It was a layer of ice cream covered in condensed milk then layers and layers of shaved ice on top. They put three flavors on it and covered it in more condensed milk and whip cream. Holy cow was it good. And massive. (Dallin had already eaten most of the whip cream before I got a picture.)

I love birthdays! Especially Dallin's! It was definitely my favorite day in college so far. It's a really good reminder to always take out some time to spend with the one you care about. Sometimes they might forget or get too busy to think about it. But always always always find a moment to remind them what they mean to you.

Everyone always says "when one door closes, another door opens," but honestly, how easy is it to actually walk through the newly opened door? Not easy! My first week of being on campus is almost over and it hasn't really been the best. Yeah, it's amazing to just walk to the beach and have a picnic whenever I want, but it gets a little old when you don't know anybody. School hasn't started yet, so I know it will get better, but it is still a little bit frustrating. I have never been good at the whole making new friends thing. That will have to change this next year, though. But there have been some good things, too.

The weather is amazing. It gets really hot, but there is almost always a breeze to cool you down. It also rains which is really nice because most of the time it is still warm when it rains. I love it.

The people here are so nice. Everyone is so friendly and never forgets to say hello and make sure you are doing okay. It is a lot different than in the mainland. I love it. Not that there aren't nice people there, too! Don't get me wrong, but it is just different here.

The amount of culture here is incredible. No matter where you turn, there is a new language being spoken. I love it! (There are a lot of Chinese people, too!) There are a bunch of islander girls in my hale (dorm) and they are ALWAYS laughing so loudly. It cracks me up! I never know what they are laughing at, but they never stop. It's hilarious!
The Asians are always traveling in pairs. Well, couples. I feel like they escape their hometown to Hawaii to just be with the one they are forbidden to love! There are so many Asian couples! Every corner has them.
My roommate just got in today, and she is from Korea. She is adorable. She is a return missionary and she is 25 (24 American age). She is also here to study teaching English as a second language, which I thought was pretty cool. Her name is Yeji. When I told her I studied Chinese she said, "Oh! I am so sorry I am not Chinese!" I felt so bad! It was so cute though.

But of all the awesome things I have experienced so far, and of everything I will experience, my favorite will always be this:

Isn't that beautiful?? That is where I am going to get married! I can't wait :) I will have to get a picture of how it looks at night because it is even more stunning. The light radiates through the night and it seems to light the sky. It's gorgeous. And the best part is that it is basically on campus! It's about a 5 minute walk! (Campus is VERY small...) That in itself is a blessing.

I guess I should show some pictures of my dorm. It's pretty...well.... the pictures will explain.

And that's it! It's very small and old. The desk is that little fold out compartment in the bottom picture. High-tech, huh? Ha! Everything is made of metal and wood so it's rather rusted over from years of humidity. It's awesome. There are also tons of bugs. Huge spiders and tiny ants on the walls. Since I am near the window, there are tons of those little tiny black gnats everywhere on the wall next to me. I don't want to know if they get in my bed....

The other best part about living here is the sunset every night! I love them! Dallin and I go to the beach and eat sandwiches during the sunset. It's really nice :)

Well that basically covers the first week of my Hawaii adventures! Hopefully I will have better stuff next time. Until then... Remember! :)

Hair: That stuff that's fun to change

How many hairstyles can a person have in such a short period of time? A lot. That is the biggest lesson I have learned over the past year. And now my hair is so short I can't change it anymore...well, unless I went bald, but I don't want that. Let's take a look at where I started:

Pretty long huh? Oh and that is my twin sister, Kamarie. Well, she isn't really my twin, but people mistake us for twins all the time! (I'm more than okay with that, too!) She is three years older and wiser than me. This was taken about a year ago. And then I chopped all that hair off...

Okay, you have to ignore the expression and awkward stance. We are looking at the hair here. Terrible picture but it gets the point across. Then I cut it again for senior pictures.

It doesn't seem like that big of a difference, but it really was. The back I was able to spike and give a lot more texture instead of looking all awkward like the first cut.

 I let it grow out a bit before I went to China.

Pretty nice, huh? This is my personal favorite. Oh, and that is my best friend of all time, Nicole. I went to Seattle to visit her last summer and as you can tell it was a huge party.

I got my hair cut in China after a few weeks of living there during the summer on an exchange. Telling them how I wanted it cut was extremely difficult--they don't teach cosmetic vocab in school! I eventually just told the guy to do whatever. He was really nice about it and was amazed at blonde hair! And that is my host sister with me at her house on the last day there. She was so cute!

When I got home from China, I decided it was time for something new. I cut it again and added some red!

 

Then I colored it purple for one day for a Shakspeare performance. I was Hermia and Maddie (she always has awesome hair, as well) was Helena.

I proceeded to grow out my hair and make it really big! Perfect for homecoming! That is my boyfriend, Dallin Perez. His hair is pretty good too, I guess ;)

I had to get a bob for the musical I was in. This hairsyle was NOT my choice at all. I was Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie and unfortunately, I couldn't wear a wig. This picture was taken at Disney World when I went with my theatre class. And that is Brittany Shaffer. She was Miss Dorothy in the musical and I love love love performing with her!

And now it's dark brown!! Still a bob, but very dark. This was taken during one of the performances of Millie.

Right when the show was over, I chopped it all off! I hated that bob! It was awful. And there really was only one style I could get out of that. A pixie cut. (This was at senior prom with Dallin. We got to borrow our seminary teacher's Camaro...)

And this is how my hair is now! I'm growing it out and going light so I can start all over! Yay!