College days ...

So today I went onto BYU campus for the first time since I graduated 9 years ago. Has it really been THAT long? I suppose so, considering I moved to Seattle got married and now have four children. :)

I've been meaning to go look at how everything has changed, but I just haven't gotten around to it. However, I wanted a BYU shirt for Shayla (sans shipping costs), so I stopped by for a brief moment this morning.

Walking back into the WILK, where I spent a LOT of time as a student editor of The Daily Universe (it has since moved locations), I just felt a sense of energy. I looked at how things had changed (a computer lab on the first floor of the WILK?) and thought about how much fun it was to go to school there. I walked through the eatery and study area and listened to someone playing beautiful piano music. I remembered the yummy chocolate oreo shakes I would get from time to time at the eatery.

Just looking around made me miss college life! I had so much fun and energy during college, and I felt smart and useful. Seems I often feel like I'm missing on some of those things these days. :)

Anyway, then I remembered how stressful it was to be a student and to look forward to graduation and wonder what it would be like to "start life" after college was over. (Honestly, my most fun as a single woman came from my days in Seattle. I loved the Kent 9th Branch!) I thought about the whole dating scene and what a mess it seemed, and how stressful that could be. I remembered that while I was single I also didn't have the same confidence and surety that I have now, even though my brain doesn't seem to function on the same plane as it did during those BYU days. I remembered that although I did have TONS of fun at BYU and in the K-9, I am SO HAPPY to be married, and to be happily married at that. I am grateful that we have been blessed to have four wonderful children and hope to add more to our ranks one of these days. I'm grateful that I got to experience that life -- and love almost every minute of it -- rather than getting married shortly after high school (which is probably what I wanted to do at the time). And I remembered what an honor I felt to graduate from college, and especially from BYU -- a college filled to the brim with good, honest, hard-working, FUN people who will be friends for life.

I should probably mention on that note that BYU is where I met my BFF Hilary. We were both interns at Novell and spending LOTS of time at The Daily Universe and somehow we just clicked. We served in the public relations student society together, went to Boston together, wrote and worked on a PR movie together, and taught countless numbers of people how to play Yahtzee! (Where did these non-Yahtzee! people come from, anyway?) We were roommates our senior year, and we moved up to Seattle together after that. I'm not sure I would have had the guts to go to Seattle without her, and it was an AWESOME experience with her. Hil, you're the best. Have we really only been friends for 10 years?!? Oh, and when are we doing Hawaii again?!?

In BYU football gear we borrowed for our PR video (BTW, Lavell Edwards was SO NICE!):



With the most awesome college mascot ever (Cosmo), the awesome BYU football coach (Lavell Edwards), and the very kind President Merrill with his wife. Hil is next to Cosmo, I'm ducking down next to her:


Pretending to be broadcast news reporters on graduation day. So glad we stuck with print:


At Pearl Harbor. Yes, I realize Hilary is with my mom -- not me -- in this picture. Somehow at the top of Diamond Head I have a picture with Hilary and my parents, but nobody got a picture of me. I PROMISE I did make the climb!


The Seattle ferry -- Christmas card from 1999: