One Wonderful Year

This week, I went laser tagging and I was unfortunately reminded how badly I suck at it. In the beginning, I tried to play it fair but eventually, I resorted to covering my own vest, slapping people's guns away, and tackling my enemies. 

I looked something like this:

Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfk8V4hmJ8c

That was probably the highlight of my week. 

But tonight I've got more on my mind than just the past week. It is the last night before I turn 21 and I'm reflecting on what a wonderful year it's been. It's been a year of saying goodbye to old friends, finding new friends, parties, weddings, funerals, laughter, tears, and midnight kisses. I traveled the world...from Paris to New Zealand. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the beaches of Normandy, the Colosseum, and the Shire. I made good choices. I made mistakes. And I learned from everything.

I've enjoyed Year 20 so much. It was a year of changes...one I'll never forget. 

I can't wait to see what Year 21 has in store for me. 

Ain't No Party Like an IDP

College is a time when you do incredibly immature and ridiculous things. I think this stems from the fact that we are no longer young enough to live with our parents and have them dictate our lives, but we are also not old enough to have lost the little kid inside of us. Basically, we're stuck between childhood and that scary thing called "being an adult."

This past year, I've discovered the IDP, aka the iPod Dance Party. And they are amazing. This is how your average IDP works: 1. Download the selected playlist to your iPod. (It's usually about 30-40 minutes long). 2. Go to the meeting point at the specified time. 3. Put in your earphones. 4. On the count of 3, everyone press play. 5) Dance like there's no tomorrow!!!!

This probably sounds like the stupidest thing you've ever heard of. Well, it is. But it is also seriously fun. My favorite part is taking my headphones out and watching everyone dancing in silence. There's nothing funnier on this earth.

This weekend, I went to an IDP at my college library. Picture 40 or so kids gyrating and shimmying through rooms full of bookshelves and tables with no music playing. If you've got that image in your head, you'll understand why I chose it as my Weekly Wonderful.

In case you can't picture this, I found a little video of some kids at another college doing their own dance party.

Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eev5ShW4Yk 

As you can see, IDP's are stupid, hilarious, weird, immature and absolutely ridiculous. But that's college for you. 

New Beginnings, Old Friends & Hot Volleyball Players

This week marked the first week of a new semester at BYU. I'v always loved new beginnings...a fresh start, a clean slate, all that jazz. As I thought about the end of The Great and Terrible 2013 and the beginning of 2014, I felt like this:

Retrieved from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bet-on-it

Preach it Zefron.

I spent New Year's in New Zealand this year and because it was summer down there, the celebration was a lot like America's 4th of July. Everyone in the town of Rotorua spent the day outside counting down to the new year. We all gathered by the lake and at midnight, a beautiful display of fireworks went off. While I sat there listening to the music and watching the lights rain down onto the lake, I really felt like anything could happen this year.

That's what I love the most about new beginnings: Possibilities. 

I've also had quite a few of my best buddies come home from their missions in the last few weeks, which has been so fun. I love getting to reconnect with old friends.

Perhaps the most wonderful moment of this week was going to BYU's men's volleyball game on Saturday. We played Long Beach (the number one team in the nation) and we WON. The game brought back so many good memories of my high school team. Volleyball will always have a special place in my heart. 

But nostalgia was not the only thing I felt last night. Those volleyball players are dang hot, so I was hyperventilating a little bit just watching them play.

Retrieved from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i'm-in-love-i'm-in-love-and-i-don't-care-who-knows-it

As I was leaving, I just happened to run into the team and I was rewarded with glorious high fives from them as they ran by. *Sigh* I'm never washing my hand. 

BONUS:

This is an extra wonderful discovery I found this week.

Can't. Stop. Watching.

Retrieved from http://iwastesomuchtime.com/index.php?&page=7

There and Back Again

Well, I officially destroyed the whole point of this blog by not posting anything for three weeks. But in my defense, those three weeks were absolutely crazy.

Let's see...there was the midnight premiere of the Hobbit....college finals....my older brother's engagement...my annual 12-hour Lord of the Rings Marathon...and a little 2-week trip to New Zealand.

All in all, I packed a whole lot of wonderful in the last part of December.

And yes, New Zealand was incredible. I'll be adding lots of notes and pictures on my travel blog so I'll post a link here as soon as that's done. But some highlights include: Going on the world's highest canyon swing, tubing through a cave full of glowworms, Zorbing, and seeing the Shire. And that's just to name a few.

Traveling is one of my greatest passions. There's nothing I love more than exploring new places and seeing things half-way around the world that take my breath away. And New Zealand took my breath away at every turn. "Wonderful" is such an understatement here. It was an incredible journey and I miss it already.

As Bilbo Baggins said:

Image retrieved from http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/2e/2a/5b/2e2a5bbde489a10c3120e47066c3b6c4.jpg