Graduation

Wow.  What a great feeling to have graduated from college.  I worked hard for it, and felt like I deserved every moment of celebration I gave myself on Friday, the 13th.  (Yes, of course that's when I graduated, haha)  As I was sitting listening to the speeches in my convocation, which were all really good, I began thinking back to all of the years I spent at BYU and what they meant to me.  So, you all can take this little nostalgic trip down memory lane with me, while I document those feelings in my blog :).

FRESHMAN YEAR:
I started at BYU in May of 2005.  I was a summer semester starter, and I thought that was pretty cool.  I was so excited to come to Provo, Utah and begin a life full of devotionals, scripture studies, cute returned missionaries, and tons of awesome friends.  My family and I made the horrendously long drive from Indiana to Utah and they helped me move into my dorm and get acquainted with my new home.  My mom constantly had tears welling up in her eyes, and my sister, Morgan, hardly spoke.  It was an emotional time....for them.  We were all joking this past weekend about when they said goodbye to me.  There was a freshman dance to get to so my goodbye seemed very short and unloving, but I was ready to go dance!  My mom and Morgan cried all the way to Wyoming while I boogied down into the wee hours of the night.

I made some amazing friends freshman year:   Caleb Hustedt, Ashleigh Donner (now Elliot), Christie Valentine, Katherine Anstead, Katie Monson, and more.  These guys were some of my best pals and stuck with me through thick and thin.  I still keep in contact with them and I'm so glad they were all a part of my life.  I also met some not-so-great people who created some pretty tough obstacles in my life, but I learned from them, as well.

Freshman year was my first year of college marching band.  Oh, I could have sworn at that time it was the best moment of my life--to be in the BYU Cougar band.  The practices were long, hard, and hot, and I loved every minute of it.  I made some more awesome friends in marching band as well.  I endured my first year of music theory, dictation, and clarinet lessons.  Those were some of the hardest classes I ever took at BYU.

In one of the speeches at my convocation, the young woman speaking mentioned situations and failures in our college careers that helped make us stronger and grow.  One of my biggest upsets/ failures of my life came during my freshman year at BYU.  I was an eager music education pursuing student who after taking the classes, and submitting my work to the committee waited for the result following my interview.  These men had my music career in their hands.  It was up to them to decide if I could continue on as a music education major.  I got the call to come in to Dr. Jessop's office to discuss the results.  I excitedly entered the room, sat down and said "Yes, Dr. Jessop?" (probably with the gooberiest grin I've ever plastered on my face because I was so giddy).  The conversation proceeded like this:

Dr J - Sit Down.
Hollie sits down...
Dr. J - Well Hollie, we talked about you, and we don't feel you're cut out to be a music teacher
Hollie - *silently holding back tears*
Dr. J - With what you have presented to me, and from what I have heard from your theory professors, I think you should just give up music altogether.  Find a different path because this simply is not the one for you.  I don't think you'll ever get what it takes to do this work.
Hollie - okay.
Hollie leaves....

I left his office and tried my hardest to AT LEAST make it down the hall with out bawling.  Yeah, I didn't make it.  I couldn't believe how MEAN he was to me!  He made me feel like a piece of crap.  I had always had music teachers that were uplifting and encouraging and here this guy is telling me to quit the thing I loved most, the thing that brought me so much comfort and peace growing up.  I was devastated to say the least.  Tony was waiting for me in his car, which made things worse.  Now I had to tell my boyfriend what a loser I was.  Boyfriend?  Oh right!  I met TONY my freshman year!  Yeah!  (I won't go in to HOW we met, if you'd like to know, just ask!)  But that was pretty awesome :)

SOPHOMORE YEAR:
Just prior to the starting of this school year I married my best friend, Tony, in the Nauvoo temple.  It was the best day ever!  And probably the smartest choice I've ever made in my life.

This year wasn't nearly as eventful as freshman year, so I'll skip the details and give you the short version:  I took more music classes, re-submitted my work to be considered for acceptance into the music ed. program (I know, I'm nuts), and was again rejected.  This time, the let down was a little more gentle.  It actually was up to me.  If I could prove myself in my theory class, and there was room, they would let me in.  I decided after a lot of meditation and thinking, that a music degree wasn't going to work out for me.  I loved music, still do, but I obviously needed to do something else with my talents.  After completing a tour with the BYU Wind Symphony, which was an unforgettable experience, I decided that I was changing my major to Marriage, Family, and Human Development.

JUNIOR YEAR:
I began my journey with my new degree and had a tremendous gain in confidence.  I loved the content of my new classes, I loved my professors, and I loved the freedom to THINK!  I knew that this was a good choice for me, and that I would do well in my classes.  It was a fresh start.  While I did feel good about my major, there were days of doubt and question of whether or not I did the right thing.  One of of these particularly "down" days I made my way into the School of Social Sciences internship fair.  There, I ran into a booth with programs that let interns go to Bulgaria, of all places, to work with orphans there.  When I met Tony for lunch on campus, I told him about it and we decided we were going to do it.  Fall of 2008 we would leave for Bulgaria.

SENIOR YEAR:
Things start to get tricky here, because I actually stayed at BYU for five years.  But I'll lump years 4 and 5 into this category, for simplicity's sake.  This is the year we traveled to Bulgaria.  Readers of my blog know about all of the crazy stuff we endured there.  It brought us closer together and taught me about the world around me.  Years 4 and 5 I took some of my favorite classes from some of my favorite professors.  Some of these include: Infant Development, Advanced Issues in Human Development, both taught by Dr. Chris Porter; Marriage and Family Therapy, Dr. Elizabeth Fawcett; Adolescent Development, Dr. Sarah Coyne; and Language Development.

Oh!  We can't forget my Independent Study classes.  THAT was so hard for me.  It was hard to keep myself on track for the whole summer.  Ah yes, and not to mention the professor who called me "ignorant."  Boy was I glad to get rid of those classes!

Then, I graduated.  I didn't think I would get emotional at my graduation.  After all, I was SO glad to be finished!  But, when we were all done walking through and the crowd cheered for us (for probably 2 and a half minutes) I cried.  I cried like a little girl.  I have never been more proud of myself in my life.  I was also a little sad to be moving on into the grown up world and not learning anymore in classes.  With all of the bad things that happened during college, so many good things came from it.  I'm smarter, happier, more well-rounded, and more self-confident.  I wouldn't trade my education for the world.  I'm kind of known for hating lots of attention, but that day, I loved it.  I loved it because I knew I deserved it.  Go me!

Now I'm excited to go to a football game not only as an alumna, but as a non-marching band citizen. :)