2 months in

This past month has been so crazy. My brain has felt like exploding. College isn’t super hard; it just moves at a lot quicker of a pace than highschool. I have thought about changing my major about a million times. Between nursing, meteorology, chemistry, teaching, and psychology. Then again why can’t I travel, have a lot of money, be a stay-at-home mom, and work all at the same time. Answer: be an influencer am I right. Anyway, I am still a Marketing major even though I honestly have no idea what I could do with that. If you have any suggestions on what you think I’d be good at let me know. I still have about 1 ½ semesters of generals to complete, plenty of time. A bonus from college is you walk a lot, so I have calf muscles now from walking about 4 miles a day with hills!!

Swimming has been tough. If I am being honest, I came here not really loving swimming. I had been through a lot this past year and it kind of dimmed my flame. I was hoping once I got here it would just turn around, but wow was I wrong. I think it’ll take more than a new environment to fix everything. We workout 20 hours a week. Doubles + weights Monday, Wednesday, Friday, then Tuesdays and Thursdays we only swim in the afternoon. But don’t worry, we get recovery Wednesday night!! My body has never been this exhausted, but I keep surprising myself each day with what I’ve been able to do. Therefore, I’m very proud of myself. I had my first meet a week ago and it was super fun! I finally felt part of the team, not like I wasn’t but after it was different. I was proud of how I did and now I know I have a lot of growing potential haha. I don’t know how this year is going to look for me. It’s either going to go crazy good or it’ll be a training year for me. Either way I am going to have to put in the work and it is all about my attitude whether I have a “good” year or not. Good can mean a lot of different things.

One thing that I have already learned and hope everyone will remember in life is your best will look different each and that is ok. The most important thing is you are taking care of yourself, and you can look back on your day and be proud with what you accomplished and how you treated the people around you. No one can tell you how you feel, that is all you and communicate it!!

Now my favorite things about being at KU! I have something called red card and It’s like a dining plan card, but we get to use it all around town! I get to use it at grocery store, and I definitely do that the most because I love cooking and it reminds me of home. I made a killer bread recipe this morning that my mom sent me! (Please send me any good recipes!) My roommates are pretty lucky they have me or else no home cooked meals would be happening at any time. It is humid here which makes it very hot in the summer but when it is cool it feels pretty great. Plus, my hair and skin aren’t dry like they are in Utah! We have a cute main street called Mass with a bunch of restaurants and local shops that I could spend all my money at. We also have the normal big stores but no malls. And our raising canes line isn’t a 90-minute wait! The BBQ here is unreal. When Braeden came to visit, I took him to a BBQ place that my parents took me, and it will now be where you’ll go if you come and visit! We have a huge lake, probably the size of Pineview, that is about 15mins from campus that we go to a lot. I haven’t gotten to explore the town a whole look because I don’t have a car, but I have gotten the bus system down to a tee. Its only scary sometimes lol. One time I went to get chipotle and the bus was 25 mins late to picking me up because “no one rides the bus at this time of night”. Needless to say, I was crying and eating chipotle on the side of the curb waiting for my bus driver to get his raising canes. I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone, but I felt like a college student. Also, it is very safe here, so I wasn’t scared. Plus, Bk gave me a taser and Peper spray. Kansas City is absolutely beautiful and full of cool things so whenever I get the chance to go with someone I do! And the temple there is stunning!

There is no guarantee that this life is easy and oh boy has that been apparent in my life more than ever. But I know I needed to leave home to grow and find what I was missing. I miss familiarity, my family, friends, and café Rio. But I am getting better each day. My thing right now is realizing I had to be removed from a situation to see what I was missing. So far that has been a strong testimony. I would say my testimony has been tested more than it every has my whole life. The first time I went to my new ward I stood up and bore my testimony. It was one of the greatest things I could have done, even though I was so nervous. I have met great friends in the ward, and they pick me up each Sunday for church so I can’t really miss haha. It’s been great. It has given me something that is different than anyone else on campus and a way to escape from the stress and confusion of life. I have made it a priority to read something gospel related every night. Usually, a talk or church book because I am still working on understanding scripture. One step at a time. Doing this no joke helps me sleep so much better and makes the next day easier as well. I also have started listening to conference talks while doing my 15min walk to class and it allows for more peace in my life that I again didn’t know I needed. I challenge you all to do one thing relating the gospel everyday even if it is only searching up a 3 min video on YouTube. I promise you’ll see a difference. And have a consistent prayer in your heart. God knows you and knows where you’ll end up so put it all in his hands and have faith. Have faith in him and yourself! You are worth more than the finest jewel in the world, you are a child of god and he wants you to see yourself as the same.

Remember to see the stars in darkness!

Elliott <3