Time to throw on some Relient K and try to channel the Scotty of 5 years ago. Let's see... Mmhmm would be the album of theirs I listened to most. Super long because I want to see how many details stick out from 2009. Probably shouldn't read unless you want to know uninteresting things about me in detail. You've been warned.

It's honestly pretty hard to think about 5 years ago. It seems like such a long time ago, an I feel pretty different from back then. I was a senior in high school, just starting my final semester. I don't think I knew where I was going to college yet, but I would soon go to a presentation by a representative of Park. I had continued to joke about how none of the reps had given us a pen with their college name on it, and the first college to give me a pen at their presentation would be the one I'd go to. Honestly, to try to get more pens was the whole reason I went to those things because I was running out. Park gave me a pen during their presentation, and so I decided I might as well go there. (Also, I found out I'd get a full tuition scholarship, but I like to tell people the pen is the reason I went there).

I never worried much about my future. I just kind of focused on the "here and now" and trusted that God would help those things I was unsure about to fall into place. I was pretty religious at the time. I'd gone to a private Christian school since 6th grade, and I just felt like I belonged there. I met so many great friends that I just knew I could count on to be there forever. I was still pretty certain of this as I was going into my final semester of high school.

I worked at the same job I work at now. I was miserable there. Customers always were so rude, letting me know how horrible of human being I am for not giving them free stuff and such any chance they got. I was a part of a service club in school called ZAC club. We would soon be taking a trip to Colorado City for about 5 days to put on services at a church there and do other servicey things like cleaning up litter and whatnot. Really, we were just going to check out the mountains and whatnot. I had just finished my final season of soccer the semester before, and I was pretty sad about that. I would try to set up a meeting with Park's soccer coach to try out for the team, but he would constantly cancel on me and it would never work out.

At the beginning of the previous year (I think), I would have ended a relationship of about 1 year that had went pretty sour. I was happy and content with being single in 2009, but over time started to miss that kind of companionship. There would be girls I'd like. Anytime I just started to get to know a girl and start to develop feelings for her, someone else would ask her out within a week. This happened 100% of the time which was kind of discouraging throughout that year. I've been single ever since then, but it doesn't really bother me.

I'd be in a play in the spring about the Book of Mormon. My school was a part of the Restoration church, which is a branch off of the RLDS, so it was a serious thing. These spring plays were always religious and were generally pretty bad, but I just liked acting. I played Lemuel, one of Nephi's brothers. There were actually a lot of funny moments in this play of people forgetting their lines. This summer would be the first that my school would start doing musicals with alumni from the school (of which we actually had professional actors). I was a suitor in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Lots of good times there.

At the end of 2009, I'd go to my first semester of college. In my Freshman classes, I would meet several people that I'd eventually have most of my Education classes with. They would become some of my best friends by senior year. At the time, though, I just kept being shy and quiet and never talked to anyone really. I hate talking to people I don't know and feel super awkward about it, and it always takes forever for me to start to open up to someone. I should have just opened up to these people. It would have saved me a lot of heartache and loneliness that first semester, because boy was I lonely. Remember when I said my friends from high school would be there for forever? Yeah, they all dropped off the face of the earth. I'd call and text friends only to get no responses. These were my best friends just a few months prior, and this hurt. A lot. I didn't want to experience this again, and I kind of closed myself off from people for a while. It's still hard for me to get close to other people because there's always this lingering fear that those people will abandon me.

To leave off on a more positive note, I think this was the semester I got to take an Astronomy class. (if not, it was the next semester which would make it 2010, but whatever). I was obsessed with astronomy, and this was finally my chance to mess with telescopes and such, something I'd wanted to do since I was a little kid. We took a trip to the Powell observatory which was pretty awesome. The computer kept malfunctioning whenever my professor tried to punch in coordinates into the computer to have it move the telescope, and it kept swinginging around and pointing straight to the ground instead. The huge telescope kept almost knocking people over that weren't paying attention, and it was funny. It was a beautiful, clear night though, and I got to see some awesome sights through that telescope. Definitely one of my favorite memories.

Sorry, you were warned how long this would be. I don't know why I typed all of this, haha.