Time Flies...Upcoming Changes...The Trek

I've basically forgotten that I even have a blog and looking back on my posts, it's startling to know that my last post was nearly a year ago. It's almost April of my senior year, and boy does time fly. I'll soon be turning 18...the age I always dreamed of but never imagined I would reach. As I sit here in my quiet house in our dark office, procrastinating going to sleep, I can't imagine a better time to reflect on my life thus far and my life to come in the very near future, and how stark the contrast of the two will be. I'll be going up to NAU in August to study choral music education and I couldn't be more thrilled for the change.

No feeling other than total gratitude floods my heart as I think of all that I've been blessed with recently. I have had numerous opportunities to perform and share my passion for music with many people in different areas of church and school. I've taken seriously my efforts in singing and successfully auditioned and been admitted to the music programs at U of A, NAU, and ASU. I was 3rd chair alto in my regional choir and more shockingly 1st chair alto in the Allstate choir. I am so glad to know that all of my recent joy has stemmed from music and the talents that God has blessed me with and I couldn't be more excited to start studying music in-depth in college.

Today was my final day of a great two-week long spring break and surprisingly, I spent the day sleeping and trying to recover from the pioneer trek I participated in on Wednesday through Friday. For those who don't know what a pioneer trek is, we basically don pioneer clothing, push hand carts through rugged terrain for many miles a day, and experience what our pioneer ancestors went through by leaving the world and living as they did for a few days.

I had many reasons not to go on this trek: I am almost 18 (completed with the Church's youth program); most of my friends are 18 and wouldn't be going; I had already been on a trek when I was 14; I was going to be on a special girl time during the days of the trek; I still had things to take care of with college enrollment & housing; I could have been home doing school work, teaching piano, making money, applying for scholarships, etc....I mean, the list goes on and on. And honestly, I couldn't think of one reason TO go. But I strongly felt that I needed to go and so last minute, I headed to Goodwill on Tuesday night to figure out what the heck I would wear on this thing and quickly prepared for what would be the hardest few days ahead of me. I will spare my readers (if I even have any?) the lengthy details of what went on during the trek but what I will do is express my gratitude towards my Heavenly Father for giving me the extra push to go. The trek and the experiences I had on it changed my life and gave me the sealing witness that the gospel is true before I soon go out on my own where I won't have my family or community to encourage me to live the gospel. And between you and me, during the time when I was planning on not going, I felt sort of guilty to Heavenly Father for receiving an outpouring of blessings and yet being so self centered that I couldn't sacrifice 3 days to receive spiritual upliftment. But with a set of swollen black-girl lips and a tomato face later, I sit here in gratitude for the blisters, sunburns, and sore muscles I received, because "in extremes, we draw closer to God."

Well folks, that will be all for now. I genuinely want to be better at posting on here, mainly for selfish reasons since blogging is a good way to journal. But knowing myself, senioritis will get in the way of doing anything productive over the next couple months, and the next time you'll hear from me may be when I'm up at NAU...who knows? So for now, Goodnight!
-Haylee