My Great American Novel

When I was in 8th grade I started a journal.  I wrote in it frequently and just kept writing year after year.  Recently I pulled out my journal box and started to read the journals.  I started with the first one and read for weeks.  It has been fascinating and quite addicting.  I had terrible handwriting and spelling in the first few journals so it was a slow start but over time I did learn how to write neater and spell. I’ve been reminded about myself as a teenage girl and it helped me to understand my own teenage daughters better.  I was always in love with some boy (although I didn’t tell my friends who) and I often felt lonely despite having lots of friends.  I would write little goals for myself in my journal and it is fun to see how I did eventually accomplish them.  My parents were always taking us on fun adventures and doing nice things to help me out.  My mom made several dresses for me including the one pictured below.  I am the girl in front.
This picture is of me and my 9th grade friends after the ninth grade dinner dance.

Here I am after one of my 4 Girls Camp 50 mile hikes.  I loved hiking.  I still do when I don’t have complaining kids with me.  My dad went on 2 of the hikes with me.  I can’t believe that he would take a week off of work to spend with me and some crazy girls in the mountains.

 
I had lots of sweet friends in junior high and high school but Amy was one of the best.  Here she is at the zoo with me and my brothers and two of the neighbor boys.
I was so excited when I found out I was accepted to BYU.  When I started as a freshman my cousins Kodi and Trevor were there too.  I took a few classes with Kodi (we had the same major) and would often hang out with Trevor and his roommates who lived nearby.  My older brother Aaron was also there and was always so willing to drive my around.  He was so kind to me and doesn't always make funny pictures like he did here.
I didn’t know any of my roommates (see me posing with them below) but they were all amazing and we are still friends today.   As a freshman I took a fun dance class and met lots of nice boys.  I joined a service club called Wright leadership and met more fun boys.  I got to go on several dates which was pretty cool. I didn’t date much in high school. 

 
My sophomore year I lived off campus and had RM’s in my ward and went on even more dates.  But with every date either I wasn’t interested in him after the date or he wasn’t interested in me. I got to learn how to make lots of friends and how to talk to boys without blushing.
I stayed one spring term at BYU at the Colony Apartments and there I met this awesome group of people that I would visit the temple with early in the morning and take fun bike rides to Utah lake
with.

During spring term I learned how to play the guitar.  Everyday I would walk past  condo row and often I would see this cute guy out on his balcony.  After several weeks we started up a conversation exchanged numbers and went on a few dates.  I really liked the guy (who I called X man before I learned his name).  But I went home for summer and he graduated.  It wasn’t meant to be.

But that short lived romance prepared me for my junior year of college when I moved to the Riviera Apartments.  I had new roommates and a new ward and it was awesome.  Our FHE group pictured below was so fun and that is where I met a special boy named Scott.
It was not love at first sight but after a few weeks of school I wrote in my journal  “I really like a boy in my ward named Scott”.  The very next day he called me and asked me on a date.  I had a great time and felt so comfortable around him.  We started walking to school together everyday, studying together, sitting together at church and doing fun things together.  Later that year we got engaged. It was cool to read all the details about our courtship as I had forgotten so many of them. He became my best friend (even replacing my mom –who I was really close to).  Now 18 years later I am so glad I made that decision to move to the Riviera.
While at BYU I saw my grandparents often.  Both sets of them lived nearby and they were always inviting me and my roommates over.  Reading about their kindness surely made me miss them.  One Grandma is still alive but the others have passed on.  This picture was taken when I took Scott with me to their house.  I like this picture because I am wearing a denim dress that Scott didn't like but never told me that until years later. He is such a polite guy.  It had black buttons covered in corduroy.
I still have quite a few journals to read and I can’t wait to read about all my exciting adventures (that I have forgotten about).  My life story truly is the great American novel to me.