To Be A Leader

Hey everyone, so I'm not in the mood to go to bed, though it is late and I definitely should. I'm just full of hopes, goals, and dreams right now, and since it is too late to call Mom and gush, I'm doing it here. Sometimes I just need to talk and get it off my chest, but if I talk to someone in person (like a roommate) I just feel cheesy, and it's a lot easier to feel cheese-free when I'm writing on here.

I have so many things I want to do in my life...it feels like I will run out of time to do them all! I want to get married and have a family, but I want more than that. I want to leave this world knowing that my life, and the life of my future family, made a difference in the world. I know that being a good mother is a wonderful and meaningful life--I do believe that motherhood is the most important calling I could have. But, I also believe that I can do more than that, and I can teach my children to be more than that too. During my senior year of high school I did a project on extreme poverty throughout the world. It is very real. Suffering is real. As I did that research, I really felt the drive and desire to change the life of at least one person in those circumstances. To give them a chance to help themselves, to not feel hungry or cold, to have the comfort of knowing their child can actually have a better life than they had. And then there is this class here in the College of Engineering that I want to take so bad. For a year you work on teams of engineers (of all kinds) to design things that are needed in poverty-stricken areas of Peru, Tonga, or Ghana. They've done projects like installing bio-filter toilets for sanitation, economical ways to convert coconut oil to diesel fuel, and installing plumbing. I want to do that soo bad! What worth will my knowledge have if I don't DO anything with it? I mean, really. Who cares about some gas company in CA, when these people can't even get clean water?

Tonight I saw The Blind Side. That woman is a doer. She is somebody who sees a need, and fills it. She has made a life for herself that has put her in a place so that she can do something. I want to be like her. It's not quite my nature to be all crazy proactive, but I need to be. I want to be. I want to not waste my time, I want to really work at school. I want to become a doer. I will have to if I want to make a difference.

So, first thing on my list to do to make a difference: I'm going on a mission. It's pretty much decided. I've been thinking about it since the beginning of December. Things happened, God showed me things, uncommon things, just so .... well, I know I need to go. It's at a time in my life when a lot of things happen. I'm giving up school, friends, and family for 18 months. But giving 18 months of my life to God isn't much. And I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and the most important thing I can do right now in my life is to share that with others. It will help teach me selflessness and responsibility, which will definitely help in my goals of changing the world. So for all of you that didn't know. :) Now you do.

If we all just broke out of the bubble of our own little lives, think of what we could do! I am determined. :) Let's do it guys.

Summer's coming!

So, I finally have some of the pictures from the Festival of Colors! I swear, we looked more colored in person. :) It was a ton of fun, good memories!
Here's the group! The girl kneeling on the bottom (Liz), the girl with the crazy bright blonde hair (Tasia), and the girl second from the right (Kim) are some future roommates! It'll be great. :)

The Hindu Gods are so stern! We thought we'd go with that theme...

Um, look at the mountains. Another great thing about Provo.

This has been finals week, and it's been nice to get to go home and NOT go to class. :) Of course there is studying, but there is also lounging. This is a pretty common scenario with Amanda, Jen, and I...and notice that they are both lounging on me (also, pretty common):

Summer will be official in four days! It'll be great...warmth, the sun, swimming, no school.... :)

Starting New

Hey everyone,

So I'm actually changing my blog to this one: www.maryataglance.blogspot.com. This is just because of weird email/logging in annoyances. I've been wanting to do this for a while, so it's finally done! Yes! :)

Anyhow, sorry about the pain. But I won't be using this one at all anymore.